I stare at scans for a living, so on my days off I go looking for medicine's weirder, older, more beautiful side. This is nine Chicago stops where science gets a little theatrical — a museum full of antique bone saws, an apothecary that still smells like 1875, a hospital shaped like a BUTTERFLY. And yes, I've mapped out where to eat near every single one, because a girl needs deep dish to process an iron lung.
Trepanning tools, an iron lung, a whole wall of amputation saws. It's GLORIOUS and a little gross. Lakefront views after to calm your stomach, then a hot dog on the way home to un-calm it.
Beaux-Arts bones of the old county hospital, now a hotel and food hall. History nerds, radiologists, and Italian beef lovers all agree: this stretch of Harrison Street SLAPS. Little Italy is a five-minute walk.
Founded by Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, the first Black-owned hospital in the country. Every time I drive past I think about how much of modern surgery owes a debt here. Grab soul food in Bronzeville after and sit with it.
Streeterville's medical mothership, glass and steel and very serious. Ten minutes from a Chicago-style deep dish institution, which is the ONLY acceptable way to decompress after visiting a hospital.
Hyde Park's academic med giant, all gothic stone and quiet quads. Afterward I always end up at Valois, the cafeteria diner where you SEE YOUR FOOD before you pay. It's tradition.
TheLysts
