Dark History on Taylor Street Walking Tour with author Adam Selzer

Discover the darker side of history of Chicago's Taylor Street area—ghosts, gangsters, arson queens, b-movie greats, devil babies and more!

They say that there’s history on every block, but sometimes you come across a stretch of road where the strange stories seem to come up through every crack. One such place is the stretch of Taylor St. between Halsted and Ashland. Known today as Little Italy, the prohibition era mobsters were only one link in a long chain of fascinating stories. On this in-person walking minute tour, author and historian Adam Selzer will tell stories of arsonist queens, public hangings, miser’s curses, devil baby scares, nuns whose bodies turned to stone,B-movie greats, and legendary mobsters of the 1920s who once made Taylor Street their home.

Adam Selzer hosts the popular Mysterious Chicago livestreams, and is the author of several books, including Flickering Empire: How Chicago Invented the U.S. Film Industry, The Smart Aleck's Guide to American History, and The Ghosts of Chicago, as well as the new Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories, Symbols and Secrets. He hosts the MYSTERIOUS CHICAGO blog, appears frequently on WGN, NPR, and cable TV, and has been a tour guide for over a decade, once running roughly 200 ghost tours per year. (This tour happens to be on his birthday).

WHAT TO KNOW:

- Meet outside of Hull House, 800 S. Halsted Street.

- The stories go from the 1800s to about the 1930s.

- We will be walking on Taylor Street from Halsted to Ashland (roughly one mile), ending around Taylor and Ashland. (We usually recommend parking somewhere along Taylor at the midway point)!

- The tour typically lasts around 75-90 minutes.

- Tour will run rain or shine.

- Bathrooms are hard to come by, as the whole tour is outside.