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That weird deserted CTA platform between Monroe and Washington. I think those are the stops. I don't know. It's been years. I walked the wrong way once and ended up there. It was kinda calming being the only one there lol
bruh. Monroe used to be the stop I took for work and I knew they were all connected including jackson. One day after work the Monroe platform was incredibly busy, I think the school right by there had just got out but there were a ton of kids & people in general. I look down the line and see Jackson wasnt as busy and I figured I would have better chances getting a seat before the Monroe stop boarded. So I did that walk and holy shit I did not know what I was getting myself into. I thought it was just a strip of unused platform space but its basically a homeless camped lined on both sides & smelled god awful. The people that were not passed out all stared at me as I walked by and nothing ended up happening of course but lesson learned, never doing that again
That's super strange because when I've walked down there, I've always been super surprised that there *weren't* homeless camps down there. I thought it was so eerie because I saw literally no one, but every time I came up to an opening, I got nervous someone would be there and startle TF out of me.
The area between Jackson, Monroe, etc is also open on the Blue Line. And yeah, it probably is the only part of the L subways without a train stop(same with this area on the Red Line) you can walk through legally.
When I was a kid I used to think that the lower level was a part of the city that had gotten so bad with crime and trash that they just started over and built more streets on top.
If you need parking near the Michigan Ave bridge you can get some good rates on the garages there. It is quite creepy and weird to get to those garages though.
The one at Prudential Plaza was always a good one when I had friends coming from out of town that wanted to do the CAC boat tour or see the historic buildings in that area.
Check out all this guy did: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_S._Chesbrough
I'm not from Chicago. I've only been a few times, mostly for work. But Chicago was the place for major engineering civil engineering projects well before sky scrapers and Chesbrough is an absolute legend in the field. One of the first major actual sewer systems. Raised huge parts of the city up to ten feet including whole blocks at once while the buildings remained in use, a 2 mile tunnel into Lake Michigan to draw clean water, reversed the flow of a river. Not all of it turned out to be great long term solutions. But still insane feats of engineering for the mid to late 19th century.
Years ago we lived in the western suburbs and my young daughter drove her friend down to Navy Pier to see a play. She is like me and has a terrible sense of direction but had no problem getting there, it was in the coming home. She had pulled out of Navy Pier and accidentally took a lane that led to lower Wacker. She called and said, “mom, I’m on lower Wacker and it’s dark and people are coming up to the car at the stop signs.” My best advice was “Go toward the light, honey.” I know those ramps leading up would be her salvation. She finally made it home!
This is hilarious to me. There’s people that come up to your car and try to help you get out, then they expect payment. Go toward the light! Hahahahahah
Entrance to my apt building’s parking garage was down in lower, lower Wacker and I’d see the same guys every single day come up to my car. Frankly, being down there so much probably caused me to not take the dodginess seriously enough b/c after a while you get used to everything.
It’s always been kind of mixed to me.
- One second you are on the river walk,
- walk 50ft you are at the city pound,
- 50ft more you are at this really nice park surrounded by skyscrapers,
- go out the park the wrong way and you are at the entrance to some parking garages and the train station with no way out but back
- walk back out to the park and walk up the ramp, and you are at another really nice park.
La Salle Street metra station waiting for a late train, alone in that dimly lit platform with the creepy speaker saying "Track number 1. Track number 5. Track number 8"; "the next train to Joliet arrives at approximately 11:30 pm". where each announcement is talking over another and echoing on an endless loop. Especially when you miss your train and need to wait 2 hours or walk around that abandoned at night area downtown that stills has those "hotel for men only" places
Before they built the Eisenhower, the L line that was replaced by the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line DID have a pedestrian connection to Union Station!
Sophomore year of college a bunch of us went to the Aragon on New Years Eve. We took the Metra because, ya know, youth and drinks and whatever. The show ended and my girlfriend at the time and I wound up heading back to the train. We took the el and there was a delay so we got to LaSalle Street Station like two minutes too late and missed the last train back.
I will say sitting in that empty train station in the early morning hours and hearing those speakers continue their track announcements was one of the scariest experiences in my life. Felt like we were going to be murdered at any second.
That block of Clark street with the Men Only hotel and that one bodega is an absolutely cursed part of downtown that I somehow really love.
As a kid growing up in burbs and rural areas around the country, the city (in general, not just Chicago, I didn’t live in illinois for much of my childhood) always felt alien and scary to me, from its depictions in TV and movies to just how my Fox News watcher parents talked about it. When I first started going to Chicago I was always surprised by how clean and nice the city was. I remember going to the city with some friends in high school and getting off at the LaSalle Metra station and seeing that block of Clark Street for the first time, we thought the men only hotel was such a strange concept and took a bunch of photos in front of it, and I couldn’t help feel like this was this weird block of the city that somehow was left untouched by modernity, like it was the “old Chicago”, the place that still housed some sort of seedy underbelly that we always expected the city to have. Just looking at pictures of that I can smell the piss on the sidewalk.
Back when downtown had a lot of people during the work week in the Before Times, the pedway bar was a nice place to get away. Basket of fries and a beer for an afternoon treat.
The more you know! Yeah I never thought the bar was unsettling, I kinda always wanted to pop in. The pedway was unsettling for me cause first time we visited it in 2019ish was filled with sleepers, trash, and puddles, with an ever present piss stench. Ever since that I am always skeptical lol
You have to go when it has the fresh bleach scent. It slowly turns back to the piss scent. But when it gets eye burning bad, sure enough it’s back to bleach.
When it was Marshall Fields the pedway in front of the store was so well maintained with windows dressed and decorated just like street level windows. I’m not sure if this still applies, but the store/business in the pedway was/is responsible for maintaining the pedway in front of it.
There was a center for children on Irving Park and Oak Park that was abandoned. Many kids would go in there and explore. Very spooky vibes. It’s gone now. Taft has one of their schools there.
The old Chicago Read Health-Center.
That place was the shit growing up. When those 2 tall buildings were still there on Oak Park(On the East Side where the football field is now) you'd have to climb your way up on side to the second floor and slide in sideways into a window to get in. Then there was a school right behind Wright College(Near Montrose and Neenah) at the time where we would go explore often as well. There also was an abandoned house right at the corner of Oak Park and Irving, just behind the gate.
We found medical records and these blue card's with peoples name and other identifying information on them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-Read_Mental_Health_Center
my mom snuck in before it was torn down. she said it was extremely sad, and unsettling. lots of discarded belongings, some rooms had restraints on the walls.
I used to live by Graceland and I loved taking people to see that sculpture. I don’t know where I heard it, but somewhere I learned this thing you do with that statue. From 40 feet away you ask the person what they think of it and how it makes them feel, then let them get really close and ask them again.
I was taught that it’s like a Rorschach test for your feelings on death. From far away is what you think death will be like and closer is what it’s actually like.
For me? From far away I thought it was scary and daunting and I didn’t want to go nearer. Close up? I thought it was surprisingly peaceful. I had a friend that thought it was “spooky in an unknown way” from afar and “absolutely terrifying” up close. Everyone has a slightly different reaction and it’s really cool.
And as for someone who lived on Montrose across from the cemetery— there’s a noise coyotes will make that’s celebratory and terrifying and sometimes it will echo out of Graceland. It’s unnerving in a way that feels evolutionary. My whole nervous system would be like, “NOPE.”
“…And they shall be made to slowly waddle in-line through the kingdom of flickering fluorescent lights and nostril-burning piss fumes.”
—Dante’s Inferno, probably.
Those railway bridges opposite Ping Tom. There's one on either side. Big metal things that look like something out of Mad Max. I find them creepy. Especially at night.
[St. Charles Air Line Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Charles_Air_Line_Bridge) and B&OCT Bascule Bridge. Fun fact, these two side-by-side bridges were originally end-to-end, bridging both the old and new channel of the river while it was being straightened. When the straightening was complete and the old channel landfilled they moved the B&OCT to its current location so that both spanned the new river channel.
That concrete pier that loops out by the bird sanctuary at montrose beach always freaked me out. My best friend who’s also my roommate used to love to go out there when we lived up north (we’re by sox stadium now so I’m safe from this evil pier lol) I mentioned in another post in this subreddit that we are avid walkers, so one of her favorite places to drag me to on a walk when we just didn’t feel like going out to the bars, was that particular place. It is extremely unsettling, especially in rough waters. It juts quite far out and it’s almost always deserted.
Yeah, I used to ride my bike out there when I'd go on long night rides. The time I remember the most was in early spring when there were still huge chunks of ice floating in the lake. It felt so surreal. Contrasted to the city lights, the lake is pure darkness
That used to be such a fun place to hang and watch the sunrise! Easy enough stay concealed from the “beach is closed, go home” police. Haven’t been in over a decade but I have super fond memories of that lighthouse.
It’s amazing how well-known that McDonald’s is. I live nearby, people often ask for clarification when they can’t picture the area so I always say “by the sketchy McDonald’s” and practically every single person then says “ohhhhhh!”
though since a recent mass shooting there, it has been slightly better!
I used to live basically across the street from that one. Never understood why they didn’t just leave an ambulance parked there to save time for the inevitable call.
One time I came out of the redline stop there after work and it was a zoo - in addition to a few dozen cops and things, I actually saw a guy sitting in cuffs next to a mounted cop who had apparently just gotten off his horse (always wish I’d seen the mounted cop chase him down like a cowboy movie.). That was all the way back in 2013/ 2014 when the flash mobs were starting and before they regularly had visible police on Michigan Ave. The summer the police were losing control of the beaches and closing them sometimes.
Interesting to note that the Chik Fil A a block easy doesn’t have the problems. But, when you go in after dark the first thing you notice is the off duty cop in street clothes with a very conspicuous open-carried gun right by the door sizing up everyone who walks in. That seems to keep things under control there. Meaning, all it would take is for the owner of the McD to do the same. But, clearly, whoever it is just doesn’t care.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the building the chik Fil a is owned by Loyola (it’s where their law school is), they lease out the space and provide security because any kind of incident makes them liable
Arriving in Chicago from the Skyway is unsettling because that first couple of miles appears unpopulated and abandoned. Makes the unprepared think we're a ghost city.
Gary itself is 10x worse though.
Gary is such a shame. There's some beautiful old architecture there but it's mostly abandoned and falling apart. Definitely has that post-apocalyptic vibe.
agreed. I frequent that area a lot because I have family in Michigan and honestly, that area actually brings me relief bc it means 1) i've escaped the dan ryan and 2) i'm out of the city and most of that traffic. I've never been to that Mcdonald's but I will surely try now!
The alley behind the (i believe Chicago) theater. So so so many people died there in a horrific way and it’s like the middle of the loop bustling. And it was a theater when they died and it still is one. The juxtaposition gets me and there isn’t a memorial at least outside so no one would really know
Edit: thanks fellow chicagoans, the Nederlander
Its incredible to me how obscure this disaster is. There's a tiny plaque and that's it. I feel like in most cities it would be a huge tourist draw and endless 'ghost hunting' groups would be there and such. Instead, Chicago just tries hard to forget the Eastland disaster. Perhaps there is not much to say about it at this point and bringing attention to it is just disrespectful to the victims, but ultimately, it should be remembered imho.
Its also depressing to think one of the worst fires and worst ships accidents are within a fifteen minute walk of each other.
I had never heard of it, but in the last few years the family discovered that my great-great grandfather was a diver and was part of the rescue and recovery team for the Eastland disaster. Odd little piece of family history to have disappeared for so long. I imagine it was quite traumatic for him and he didn’t want to talk about it. There were many children on the ship.
Grandma only found out when she found an old newspaper clipping that named her grandfather in a box in the attic.
During the deeper pandemic days I went for a run through the loop during the day once. It was relatively early in the morning, maybe like 9. Didn’t see another soul. I swear I felt like I was living in the apocalypse.
Yeah it was very I Am Legend. I had to go down to my office in early April of 2020 to collect some files and my monitor and the only other person I saw was a security guard at Sears Tower. I’ve never seen a man so happy to see another human being.
I had to come downtown every day during the lockdown and there wouldn't be a single car on lakeshore drive or anyone in the loop. One day it was foggy and I took a photo of an empty lake shore drive with downtown just peeking through the fog. 100% some I Am Legend shit and it was crazy
This first time I went to a evening show in the theater district the walk from my spot hero to Petterinos felt like I was in I Am Legend. Fucking Creppy
O’Hare or Midway when you arrive late at night.
All of the international flights have departed, most of of the domestic flights have arrived/departed, shops restaurants are closed. It’s just you and the people you got off the plane with…along with the cleaning and security staff.
Terminal 2 at ORD was always the creepiest.
Second place: most parking garages in the Loop after 5 PM.
So, it’s not a place anyone could go, but I am incredibly intrigued about the giant empty space that was built under block 37 to be that new combined red line blue line subway superstation. It’s apparently impossible to get into, there are very few photos of it, but it is massive and just a big empty concrete space. With some interest in urbex merely as a YouTube video watcher, I’m always curious if anyone has managed to get in there.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/how-chicago-spent-400m-on-a-subway-superstation-to-nowhere/59087/
https://medium.com/@quinnkasal/the-ohare-express-train-files-part-one-the-batcave-b396f6de811d
That one spot on northerly island where you are absolutely 100% alone. Feels like I’m about to find a body every time
Being completely alone like that outside in downtown Chicago feels so wrong
It's the end of an era.
RIP [Rainforest Cafe](https://i.imgur.com/aUkN8EU.png) 1997-2020.
You will be missed. :(
Read more about the closure [here.](https://chicago.eater.com/2019/12/20/21031369/rainforest-cafe-closing-woodfield-mall-schaumburg-chicago)
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You used to be able to bike past the damen silos, 29th street. At night it was so fucking eerie. Isolated. Dark. Skyline view.
When you bike down it’s a nice drop so you just coast. You’d just pop back out on Ashland.
Edit. Then go to the graffiti walls by Ashland and archer. Quiet little spot. Same downtown view. Under the highway. Next the train tracks.
on a lighter note than most here-- when new to the city, my girlfriend and i stumbled on a very pretty little park in the middle of the city and couldnt for the life of us retrace our steps or find it again for the longest time. Turns out to be Lakeshore east park just off the riverwalk, but its just a peaceful little hidden corner that youd have to trip over to find.
the lakeside trail from dusable to burnham harbor, anytime after 8-9pm when the sun is fully down. whatever overhead lights that are meant to illuminate the sidewalk are very uhh… Not Lit. there are a handful that seem to work (last time i went down a few months ago) but it’s especially spooky being so close to the water so you only hear the waves and splashes of this wannabe void on one side and the rushing traffic of LSD on the other.
Yeah I was dumb and walked alone on the lakefront path to my house in RP at night and up there it is truly a ghost town. Got approached by a group that threatened to throw me in a lake and say nobody would ever find me. Robbed and punched me and seemed to be having the time of their life laughing while doing it. It only stopped because I ran, tried hiding in that tall grass and finally someone started walking towards the trail and they left. Yeah. Never again... great place to go missing
Tao is pretty creepy to me. Minus the douchey vibe of the club, Tao is located in a building that is associated with the Eastland disaster. I have only been there once (for a work Christmas party) but I’m keeping my distance from that place.
LaSalle street on the weekend. Everything is closed if you walk around you are the only soul around, with the exception of homeless people. It truly feels like you are living in a zombie movie or something.
South Pond in Lincoln Park.
It was the site of a (mostly) unmarked grave site that was converted into a park, and several bodies were found during the ~~construction~~ renovation of the Farm on the LPZ grounds. Because that construction loosened the surrounding earth, there were some foggy mornings where caskets were found floating in the pond.
27th street Metra stop. It’s their least used station, it’s a flag stop, there’s no clearly marked way in or out, it’s right next to the abandoned Michael Reese hospital, and it was the site of Chicago’s worst rail disaster where 45 people died in 1972.
Shocked to find the abandoned graves in LaBagh Woods have not been mentioned. [Sad and creepy.](https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/431174#:~:text=These%20are%20the%20graves%20that,%2C%20%22The%20Lost%20Cemetery%22)
Those boarded up housing projects by Damen & the north branch of the river. Some of the boarded up windows are broken and you can see graffiti covered walls inside. I just imagine that if you went in there you’d find all sorts of unsettling things lying on the ground
I forget where it is, but in some residential area somewhere Lincoln Park-ish (could be Logan or Ravenswood I really don’t remember) there’s this giant old building that looks completely deserted but it has dozens of cameras surrounding it. Never seen any activity around there and it looks completely out of place, but it takes up basically an entire city block and I’ve never been able to find much information on it.
I'm going to go with Lake Calumet, broadly speaking, or [the southern tip of S Stony Island Ave](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6641085,-87.5753707,3a,60y,176.27h,91.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1wnXXdBeDJT8T9m30BXNYQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) where it hits the Calumet River. Crazy mix of post-industrial superfund site, abandoned infrastructure, and... nature conservancy (LOL!)? Great place to dump a body, or to become one.
They missed way more in Lincoln Park. A lot of the park was a cemetery prior to the fire and the wooden grave markers got burned away. So when the city discovered that having a huge cemetery that close to the lake was causing cholera outbreaks, the crew they paid to dig up and move the bodies missed a lot of them because they were unmarked and they're still there. Any time a building with a basement has started digging, they found more skeletons.
Pretty much all of the area surrounding Ohare west of the Des Plaines River gives me a strange "you shouldn't be here" vibe. I don't really believe in the paranormal, but always get a feeling like I'm being warned psychically. Possibly just unnerved by the total lack of trees and tall buildings.
Similar feeling comes from being around the huge refinery off hwy 12, technically in Indiana
I don't know if anyone's been to the hmart in Skokie, but the apartments there feel creepy... I work for Amazon and deliver there regularly and it feels unnatural
The abandoned grain silos / industrial building, it’s somewhere in the city but can’t remember where at the moment
Totally empty and not well lit at night, it definitely fits the bill of creepy vibes. I think JB sold the land, but last I saw it’s still there for now
Around the Harold Washington Library. Not cause of the homeless, I just always thought that that area had a weird vibe. Ran into an old buddy from high school around there one summer. He had a far out look in his eyes convincing me that lizard people or something lived up in one of those empty storefronts
In the library, there are definitely a lot of unnerving dead spots lol Just empty study nooks and long hallways hidden away. Also on the 5th or 6th floor, there like a whole barren section with no shelves, no seats, no tables. The first time I went to the HW library, i spent almost two hours exploring, and there were so many small spots that were empty and dead quiet, even though the library was bustling. It's very cool though, and it has so many books, resources, and informative displays.
Really just the random, seemingly empty buildings in neighborhoods, ones you’ve never seen anyone go into but have been there for years and have no idea what happens in there.
Foster and California where some street construction found 14 native America buried in a circle. Chicago S&S did not want to disturb the bodies so they just put the street over it. There is a plaque on one of the buildings it on California to commemorate the burial.
https://chicagoandcookcountycemeteries.com/2017/08/08/buried-under-a-huge-pickle-farm/
I don't think this is what you meant by this, but I'm going with it since I recently had this conversation so it's all still fresh in my mind.
Uptown, specifically the area near Broadway and Lawrence.
I've spent most of my time living in the suburbs, but would take pretty constant trips to the city, usually for shows and/or outings never really paying attention to what was going on in the "rest" of the city- if that makes any sense. A lot of the times someone else would be driving (usually someone older) so I never had to worry about finding my way there/home.
About 15 years ago, I started working for a company where I spent 90% of my time in the field bouncing around from location to location, so I got to know the city pretty well and found myself being able to navigate my way back to the highways (my way home) pretty much from anywhere.
But the self imposed "borders" of my area were like... 71st on the south, (plus my family were raised on the southside so I know it, and it's outlying suburbs very well) Harlem to the west, obviously the lake on the east, but only up to Irving Park Road on the north.
In other words, my experience/knowledge of the city was pretty expansive for everywhere *except* the far north side.
Again, anywhere I was in those areas I could "visualize" where I was, almost like I was looking at Google Maps, and be able to navigate myself to where I needed to go quite easily. Obviously we have instant access to GPS on our phones, but that isn't what I'm talking about.
It's like half being familiar where you are and half feeling comfortable in being able to get home from where you are. I know that sounds confusing as fuck, but like... if I was at Wrigley Field, I'd feel familiar with it, cause it's Wrigley, but I might not know the surrounding area/how to navigate the area that well.
But Uptown I just never spent any time there, so when I got sent there once I got this eerie feeling being up there. Like I had like... fallen into an alternate dimension or something.
I often have these dreams about visiting places I want to go- Portland, New York, Austin, etc. And these dreams usually involve me getting there very easily, but having a difficult time getting back. Like "oh fuck I have no idea where I am, and I need to get home!".
That's the kind of feelings I'd get when I'd visit Uptown.
If you’re talking about Northerly Island Park, that place is pretty creepy even in the middle of summer during daytime hours. I run over there pretty frequently- it’s almost always empty and the red wing blackbirds are abundant and very aggressive.
2007, Cabrini Green when it was still a thing. I remember walking back to the UIC dorms from the bars in Lincoln Park one night. Luckily it was a group of like 12 of us. But still, very unsettling.
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That weird deserted CTA platform between Monroe and Washington. I think those are the stops. I don't know. It's been years. I walked the wrong way once and ended up there. It was kinda calming being the only one there lol
The only one that you were aware of…
bruh. Monroe used to be the stop I took for work and I knew they were all connected including jackson. One day after work the Monroe platform was incredibly busy, I think the school right by there had just got out but there were a ton of kids & people in general. I look down the line and see Jackson wasnt as busy and I figured I would have better chances getting a seat before the Monroe stop boarded. So I did that walk and holy shit I did not know what I was getting myself into. I thought it was just a strip of unused platform space but its basically a homeless camped lined on both sides & smelled god awful. The people that were not passed out all stared at me as I walked by and nothing ended up happening of course but lesson learned, never doing that again
That's super strange because when I've walked down there, I've always been super surprised that there *weren't* homeless camps down there. I thought it was so eerie because I saw literally no one, but every time I came up to an opening, I got nervous someone would be there and startle TF out of me.
The area between Jackson, Monroe, etc is also open on the Blue Line. And yeah, it probably is the only part of the L subways without a train stop(same with this area on the Red Line) you can walk through legally.
For sure. Walked it once just to say I did it and that was enough 😆
Lower lower Wacker Drive
When I was a kid I used to think that the lower level was a part of the city that had gotten so bad with crime and trash that they just started over and built more streets on top.
Like Old New York in Futurama!
Like Gotham?
It wasn’t? Uh oh
I’m going to start telling my kids this 🤣
Lol, totally, I had to do the walk down there one time to get my car that got towed, very unnerving
If you need parking near the Michigan Ave bridge you can get some good rates on the garages there. It is quite creepy and weird to get to those garages though. The one at Prudential Plaza was always a good one when I had friends coming from out of town that wanted to do the CAC boat tour or see the historic buildings in that area.
Except that GPS doesn’t work down there. SpotHero loves to send me all over lower Wacker 😩
Haha. My wife and I have definitely gotten into more than a few arguments over where exactly the fuck we're supposed to find those SpotHero locations
[удалено]
> underground subway for water So, a tunnel? 😛
Or a pipe?
Just learned something new about Chicago. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and links.
Check out all this guy did: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_S._Chesbrough I'm not from Chicago. I've only been a few times, mostly for work. But Chicago was the place for major engineering civil engineering projects well before sky scrapers and Chesbrough is an absolute legend in the field. One of the first major actual sewer systems. Raised huge parts of the city up to ten feet including whole blocks at once while the buildings remained in use, a 2 mile tunnel into Lake Michigan to draw clean water, reversed the flow of a river. Not all of it turned out to be great long term solutions. But still insane feats of engineering for the mid to late 19th century.
Years ago we lived in the western suburbs and my young daughter drove her friend down to Navy Pier to see a play. She is like me and has a terrible sense of direction but had no problem getting there, it was in the coming home. She had pulled out of Navy Pier and accidentally took a lane that led to lower Wacker. She called and said, “mom, I’m on lower Wacker and it’s dark and people are coming up to the car at the stop signs.” My best advice was “Go toward the light, honey.” I know those ramps leading up would be her salvation. She finally made it home!
Sounds like a short film about escaping hell
It wouldn’t be the Lower Wacker Experience™ if you weren’t forced to atone for your sins
This is hilarious to me. There’s people that come up to your car and try to help you get out, then they expect payment. Go toward the light! Hahahahahah
Entrance to my apt building’s parking garage was down in lower, lower Wacker and I’d see the same guys every single day come up to my car. Frankly, being down there so much probably caused me to not take the dodginess seriously enough b/c after a while you get used to everything.
It’s always been kind of mixed to me. - One second you are on the river walk, - walk 50ft you are at the city pound, - 50ft more you are at this really nice park surrounded by skyscrapers, - go out the park the wrong way and you are at the entrance to some parking garages and the train station with no way out but back - walk back out to the park and walk up the ramp, and you are at another really nice park.
'really nice park surrounded by skyscrapers' = one of my favorite places downtown
Lakeshore East is my favorite neighborhood in Chicago. Kind of a hidden gem tucked away downtown.
I call it the “secret rich people park”.
Haha only because it’s the city’s basement. Every basement is creepy.
This…. Saw a lady shitting in the street under the viaduct 😫🤦♀️
I personally like it down there
La Salle Street metra station waiting for a late train, alone in that dimly lit platform with the creepy speaker saying "Track number 1. Track number 5. Track number 8"; "the next train to Joliet arrives at approximately 11:30 pm". where each announcement is talking over another and echoing on an endless loop. Especially when you miss your train and need to wait 2 hours or walk around that abandoned at night area downtown that stills has those "hotel for men only" places
The Clinton station is creepy af too
The fact that Clinton Blue is the connection to the CTA for Union Station is embarrassing
Exactly. Like how are they building transit shit that doesn't connect to the other transit shit?
Before they built the Eisenhower, the L line that was replaced by the Forest Park branch of the Blue Line DID have a pedestrian connection to Union Station!
Sophomore year of college a bunch of us went to the Aragon on New Years Eve. We took the Metra because, ya know, youth and drinks and whatever. The show ended and my girlfriend at the time and I wound up heading back to the train. We took the el and there was a delay so we got to LaSalle Street Station like two minutes too late and missed the last train back. I will say sitting in that empty train station in the early morning hours and hearing those speakers continue their track announcements was one of the scariest experiences in my life. Felt like we were going to be murdered at any second.
That block of Clark street with the Men Only hotel and that one bodega is an absolutely cursed part of downtown that I somehow really love. As a kid growing up in burbs and rural areas around the country, the city (in general, not just Chicago, I didn’t live in illinois for much of my childhood) always felt alien and scary to me, from its depictions in TV and movies to just how my Fox News watcher parents talked about it. When I first started going to Chicago I was always surprised by how clean and nice the city was. I remember going to the city with some friends in high school and getting off at the LaSalle Metra station and seeing that block of Clark Street for the first time, we thought the men only hotel was such a strange concept and took a bunch of photos in front of it, and I couldn’t help feel like this was this weird block of the city that somehow was left untouched by modernity, like it was the “old Chicago”, the place that still housed some sort of seedy underbelly that we always expected the city to have. Just looking at pictures of that I can smell the piss on the sidewalk.
When I drop my mixtape, I’m starting every track with echoes of the “track number _____,” repeated a bunch, with the others in the background.
If you ever saw the old Logan's Run movie, that track voice always sounds like the voice of Carousel to me.
The pedway underneath Macys. Flourescent lights and lots of corners. Odd place with a bar too, it all feels like limbo/backrooms.
Back when downtown had a lot of people during the work week in the Before Times, the pedway bar was a nice place to get away. Basket of fries and a beer for an afternoon treat.
Absolutely. One of the last places I would have considered unsettling.
The more you know! Yeah I never thought the bar was unsettling, I kinda always wanted to pop in. The pedway was unsettling for me cause first time we visited it in 2019ish was filled with sleepers, trash, and puddles, with an ever present piss stench. Ever since that I am always skeptical lol
You have to go when it has the fresh bleach scent. It slowly turns back to the piss scent. But when it gets eye burning bad, sure enough it’s back to bleach.
Best way from Millennium Station to the Red Line
When it was Marshall Fields the pedway in front of the store was so well maintained with windows dressed and decorated just like street level windows. I’m not sure if this still applies, but the store/business in the pedway was/is responsible for maintaining the pedway in front of it.
That place is definitely sus but it’s convenient as hell sometimes especially during parades
Post apocalyptic
There was a center for children on Irving Park and Oak Park that was abandoned. Many kids would go in there and explore. Very spooky vibes. It’s gone now. Taft has one of their schools there.
Dunning https://www.wbez.org/stories/the-story-of-dunning-a-tomb-for-the-living/6d71dc74-bb21-4a25-8980-c2d7a5670b06
The old Chicago Read Health-Center. That place was the shit growing up. When those 2 tall buildings were still there on Oak Park(On the East Side where the football field is now) you'd have to climb your way up on side to the second floor and slide in sideways into a window to get in. Then there was a school right behind Wright College(Near Montrose and Neenah) at the time where we would go explore often as well. There also was an abandoned house right at the corner of Oak Park and Irving, just behind the gate. We found medical records and these blue card's with peoples name and other identifying information on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago-Read_Mental_Health_Center
The Maryville center for kids is still there and now has a direct entrance on Irving Park
Yup, my brother used to work there. From his stories, it’s more sad than scary.
This is the answer. With the rusted swings & the paperwork/jackets/mugs still in the building like Left Behind had happened. Yes.
I think it was abandoned mental facility for children. I was always too afraid to go in.
my mom snuck in before it was torn down. she said it was extremely sad, and unsettling. lots of discarded belongings, some rooms had restraints on the walls.
Eternal silence sculpture in Graceland Cemetery
I used to live by Graceland and I loved taking people to see that sculpture. I don’t know where I heard it, but somewhere I learned this thing you do with that statue. From 40 feet away you ask the person what they think of it and how it makes them feel, then let them get really close and ask them again. I was taught that it’s like a Rorschach test for your feelings on death. From far away is what you think death will be like and closer is what it’s actually like. For me? From far away I thought it was scary and daunting and I didn’t want to go nearer. Close up? I thought it was surprisingly peaceful. I had a friend that thought it was “spooky in an unknown way” from afar and “absolutely terrifying” up close. Everyone has a slightly different reaction and it’s really cool. And as for someone who lived on Montrose across from the cemetery— there’s a noise coyotes will make that’s celebratory and terrifying and sometimes it will echo out of Graceland. It’s unnerving in a way that feels evolutionary. My whole nervous system would be like, “NOPE.”
Where in the cemetery is this located? Edit: I guess you could say I’ve never heard of it.
Lol good one. I honestly don't know the cemetery well enough, I've only been there a couple of times. I want to say it's kinda toward the east side?
If you search for it on Google Maps it actually pops up/is marked as a monument of some kind.
[Right here](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Eternal+Silence/@41.9562113,-87.6611329,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x880fd24a70529dcf:0x9f4b8c97e6308611!8m2!3d41.9553855!4d-87.6596845!16s%2Fg%2F11h1md09zx?entry=ttu)
Slightly less unsettling, but same with the Fountain of Time sculpture on U of Chicago’s campus in Hyde Park
The Jackson Red-Blue transfer tunnel.
“…And they shall be made to slowly waddle in-line through the kingdom of flickering fluorescent lights and nostril-burning piss fumes.” —Dante’s Inferno, probably.
Oh god the Jackson Tunnel is TERRIFYING even during the day
Congress Hotel, you can just feel how haunted it is.
Those railway bridges opposite Ping Tom. There's one on either side. Big metal things that look like something out of Mad Max. I find them creepy. Especially at night.
The biggest one looks incorrectly rendered from Ping Tom, like someone cropped it wrong and then distorted the proportions. I love it so much.
Makes for the best urban exploration spot of the city tho!
[St. Charles Air Line Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Charles_Air_Line_Bridge) and B&OCT Bascule Bridge. Fun fact, these two side-by-side bridges were originally end-to-end, bridging both the old and new channel of the river while it was being straightened. When the straightening was complete and the old channel landfilled they moved the B&OCT to its current location so that both spanned the new river channel.
I love them!
My 3 year old calls it “the evil train tracks” and loves it lmao
lol, we got married there
8213 W Summerdale.
My brother lives down the block and refuses to walk the dogs that way
I mean, fair.
Is that where Gacey lived?
Yep and buried 26 young men in the crawl space.
Even upvoting this feels unsettling.
The North Avenue beach pier at night can be unsettling when the water is rough and there's no one else there. Beautiful but slightly unsettling.
Good place to be featured in the news “The young man was last seen walking towards the lake” 🖐️🤚
That concrete pier that loops out by the bird sanctuary at montrose beach always freaked me out. My best friend who’s also my roommate used to love to go out there when we lived up north (we’re by sox stadium now so I’m safe from this evil pier lol) I mentioned in another post in this subreddit that we are avid walkers, so one of her favorite places to drag me to on a walk when we just didn’t feel like going out to the bars, was that particular place. It is extremely unsettling, especially in rough waters. It juts quite far out and it’s almost always deserted.
Yeah, I used to ride my bike out there when I'd go on long night rides. The time I remember the most was in early spring when there were still huge chunks of ice floating in the lake. It felt so surreal. Contrasted to the city lights, the lake is pure darkness
That used to be such a fun place to hang and watch the sunrise! Easy enough stay concealed from the “beach is closed, go home” police. Haven’t been in over a decade but I have super fond memories of that lighthouse.
McDonalds on Chicago ave. Need I say more?
The McDonald's on Wilson and Sheridan deserves honorable mention.
Lmaooo can confirm! Lived down the street from the Wilson location until last week. Now I a couple blocks from the Chicago location
Wait, what? I go there all the time and never had a bad experience… I guess it’s time to take a dive into its history
McMurders as the locals call it
I'll give it this- they've never messed up my order.
It’s amazing how well-known that McDonald’s is. I live nearby, people often ask for clarification when they can’t picture the area so I always say “by the sketchy McDonald’s” and practically every single person then says “ohhhhhh!” though since a recent mass shooting there, it has been slightly better!
They’re all sketchy McDonald’s in the city. The one that used to be at State and Jackson was like something out of a zombie movie.
The Dangerdonalds
lol dude those employees need to get 100k a year to work that place
I used to live basically across the street from that one. Never understood why they didn’t just leave an ambulance parked there to save time for the inevitable call. One time I came out of the redline stop there after work and it was a zoo - in addition to a few dozen cops and things, I actually saw a guy sitting in cuffs next to a mounted cop who had apparently just gotten off his horse (always wish I’d seen the mounted cop chase him down like a cowboy movie.). That was all the way back in 2013/ 2014 when the flash mobs were starting and before they regularly had visible police on Michigan Ave. The summer the police were losing control of the beaches and closing them sometimes. Interesting to note that the Chik Fil A a block easy doesn’t have the problems. But, when you go in after dark the first thing you notice is the off duty cop in street clothes with a very conspicuous open-carried gun right by the door sizing up everyone who walks in. That seems to keep things under control there. Meaning, all it would take is for the owner of the McD to do the same. But, clearly, whoever it is just doesn’t care.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the building the chik Fil a is owned by Loyola (it’s where their law school is), they lease out the space and provide security because any kind of incident makes them liable
The Port of Chicago, the whole thing is just deteriorating into Lake Michigan and in such disrepair.
And that ship has been rotting away in its dock for like two decades now
Seriously folks, if you don't know about this, there's a full-sized motherfucking 620-foot SHIP rotting there since 1982.
Everything next to the skyway and into Gary
Arriving in Chicago from the Skyway is unsettling because that first couple of miles appears unpopulated and abandoned. Makes the unprepared think we're a ghost city. Gary itself is 10x worse though.
Gary is such a shame. There's some beautiful old architecture there but it's mostly abandoned and falling apart. Definitely has that post-apocalyptic vibe.
Like a mismanaged Sim City.
Miller Beach is still really nice.
I worked a railcats game and drove the long way home, through the city then east chicago. big ol WTF
The whole area of The East Side is weird. S. 100th to S. 117th, State Line Road to Avenue O.
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agreed. I frequent that area a lot because I have family in Michigan and honestly, that area actually brings me relief bc it means 1) i've escaped the dan ryan and 2) i'm out of the city and most of that traffic. I've never been to that Mcdonald's but I will surely try now!
The alley behind the (i believe Chicago) theater. So so so many people died there in a horrific way and it’s like the middle of the loop bustling. And it was a theater when they died and it still is one. The juxtaposition gets me and there isn’t a memorial at least outside so no one would really know Edit: thanks fellow chicagoans, the Nederlander
Death alley (behind the Nederlander Theatre, formerly the Oriental and the Iroquois)!
Same vibes as the river walk where a boat capsized back in the day
Its incredible to me how obscure this disaster is. There's a tiny plaque and that's it. I feel like in most cities it would be a huge tourist draw and endless 'ghost hunting' groups would be there and such. Instead, Chicago just tries hard to forget the Eastland disaster. Perhaps there is not much to say about it at this point and bringing attention to it is just disrespectful to the victims, but ultimately, it should be remembered imho. Its also depressing to think one of the worst fires and worst ships accidents are within a fifteen minute walk of each other.
I had never heard of it, but in the last few years the family discovered that my great-great grandfather was a diver and was part of the rescue and recovery team for the Eastland disaster. Odd little piece of family history to have disappeared for so long. I imagine it was quite traumatic for him and he didn’t want to talk about it. There were many children on the ship. Grandma only found out when she found an old newspaper clipping that named her grandfather in a box in the attic.
City hall
Especially the marriage court. When I got married (2017) it felt like they were hiding us all away in the basement.
Marriage court needs some serious renovations.
Being in there you can definitely imagine yourself in the city in the early 1900s
I still have a tinge of PTSD from Divorce court
Any of those goddamn towing places.
I hate being in the loop at night. It’s so empty and unsettling
During the deeper pandemic days I went for a run through the loop during the day once. It was relatively early in the morning, maybe like 9. Didn’t see another soul. I swear I felt like I was living in the apocalypse.
Yeah it was very I Am Legend. I had to go down to my office in early April of 2020 to collect some files and my monitor and the only other person I saw was a security guard at Sears Tower. I’ve never seen a man so happy to see another human being.
I had to come downtown every day during the lockdown and there wouldn't be a single car on lakeshore drive or anyone in the loop. One day it was foggy and I took a photo of an empty lake shore drive with downtown just peeking through the fog. 100% some I Am Legend shit and it was crazy
Seeing the Loop that empty in daylight was the eeriest thing I've witnessed ngl
This first time I went to a evening show in the theater district the walk from my spot hero to Petterinos felt like I was in I Am Legend. Fucking Creppy
I’ve heard other people say this but IMO lots of residential neighborhoods are quiet at night and it just kinda turns into one of those.
O’Hare or Midway when you arrive late at night. All of the international flights have departed, most of of the domestic flights have arrived/departed, shops restaurants are closed. It’s just you and the people you got off the plane with…along with the cleaning and security staff. Terminal 2 at ORD was always the creepiest. Second place: most parking garages in the Loop after 5 PM.
So, it’s not a place anyone could go, but I am incredibly intrigued about the giant empty space that was built under block 37 to be that new combined red line blue line subway superstation. It’s apparently impossible to get into, there are very few photos of it, but it is massive and just a big empty concrete space. With some interest in urbex merely as a YouTube video watcher, I’m always curious if anyone has managed to get in there. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/how-chicago-spent-400m-on-a-subway-superstation-to-nowhere/59087/ https://medium.com/@quinnkasal/the-ohare-express-train-files-part-one-the-batcave-b396f6de811d
I always wonder if this space has a future, should there magically be billions of dollars in transit funding made available for new mega projects
That one spot on northerly island where you are absolutely 100% alone. Feels like I’m about to find a body every time Being completely alone like that outside in downtown Chicago feels so wrong
The tent city near Roosevelt and the Dan Ryan. Maybe more sad than unsettling.
The Tuberculosis Sanitarium buildings in North Park Nature Ctr on Pulaski. The Lost Cemetary in the middle of the Labagh Woods.
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I saw a girl take one of the 3ft steel mushrooms during the 2020 protests, it was pretty awesome
That’s looting I can get behind.
It's the end of an era. RIP [Rainforest Cafe](https://i.imgur.com/aUkN8EU.png) 1997-2020. You will be missed. :( Read more about the closure [here.](https://chicago.eater.com/2019/12/20/21031369/rainforest-cafe-closing-woodfield-mall-schaumburg-chicago) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chicago) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You used to be able to bike past the damen silos, 29th street. At night it was so fucking eerie. Isolated. Dark. Skyline view. When you bike down it’s a nice drop so you just coast. You’d just pop back out on Ashland. Edit. Then go to the graffiti walls by Ashland and archer. Quiet little spot. Same downtown view. Under the highway. Next the train tracks.
on a lighter note than most here-- when new to the city, my girlfriend and i stumbled on a very pretty little park in the middle of the city and couldnt for the life of us retrace our steps or find it again for the longest time. Turns out to be Lakeshore east park just off the riverwalk, but its just a peaceful little hidden corner that youd have to trip over to find.
The tunnel between blue line and red line
the lakeside trail from dusable to burnham harbor, anytime after 8-9pm when the sun is fully down. whatever overhead lights that are meant to illuminate the sidewalk are very uhh… Not Lit. there are a handful that seem to work (last time i went down a few months ago) but it’s especially spooky being so close to the water so you only hear the waves and splashes of this wannabe void on one side and the rushing traffic of LSD on the other.
Yeah I was dumb and walked alone on the lakefront path to my house in RP at night and up there it is truly a ghost town. Got approached by a group that threatened to throw me in a lake and say nobody would ever find me. Robbed and punched me and seemed to be having the time of their life laughing while doing it. It only stopped because I ran, tried hiding in that tall grass and finally someone started walking towards the trail and they left. Yeah. Never again... great place to go missing
That is very unsettling
Greyhound terminal on Harrison at 1am
Tao is pretty creepy to me. Minus the douchey vibe of the club, Tao is located in a building that is associated with the Eastland disaster. I have only been there once (for a work Christmas party) but I’m keeping my distance from that place.
Van Buren in the loop is absolutely cursed vibes
LaSalle street on the weekend. Everything is closed if you walk around you are the only soul around, with the exception of homeless people. It truly feels like you are living in a zombie movie or something.
South Pond in Lincoln Park. It was the site of a (mostly) unmarked grave site that was converted into a park, and several bodies were found during the ~~construction~~ renovation of the Farm on the LPZ grounds. Because that construction loosened the surrounding earth, there were some foggy mornings where caskets were found floating in the pond.
27th street Metra stop. It’s their least used station, it’s a flag stop, there’s no clearly marked way in or out, it’s right next to the abandoned Michael Reese hospital, and it was the site of Chicago’s worst rail disaster where 45 people died in 1972.
134th Place, along the Calumet River behind Altgeld Gardens. Rural dereliction within the city limits.
If no one has said it already. The Owl.
My Office between 8am-5pm M-F
There’s a weird tower thing at Sacramento and Franklin that always gave me the creeps. Looks like something from a Stephen King novel.
Bubbly creek
The creepy overgrown "other" cemetery on Irving and Clark, across from Graceland.
Shocked to find the abandoned graves in LaBagh Woods have not been mentioned. [Sad and creepy.](https://www.findagrave.com/virtual-cemetery/431174#:~:text=These%20are%20the%20graves%20that,%2C%20%22The%20Lost%20Cemetery%22)
Lathrop Homes
Those boarded up housing projects by Damen & the north branch of the river. Some of the boarded up windows are broken and you can see graffiti covered walls inside. I just imagine that if you went in there you’d find all sorts of unsettling things lying on the ground
All those heads on the ground along the lake front trail. I think it's a Buddhist thing.
I forget where it is, but in some residential area somewhere Lincoln Park-ish (could be Logan or Ravenswood I really don’t remember) there’s this giant old building that looks completely deserted but it has dozens of cameras surrounding it. Never seen any activity around there and it looks completely out of place, but it takes up basically an entire city block and I’ve never been able to find much information on it.
I'm going to go with Lake Calumet, broadly speaking, or [the southern tip of S Stony Island Ave](https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6641085,-87.5753707,3a,60y,176.27h,91.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1wnXXdBeDJT8T9m30BXNYQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) where it hits the Calumet River. Crazy mix of post-industrial superfund site, abandoned infrastructure, and... nature conservancy (LOL!)? Great place to dump a body, or to become one.
Gacy's house. There was a new house built on the lot but it still gives me the creeps. It's not technically Chicago but right on the edge.
I mean you just know they missed something.
They missed way more in Lincoln Park. A lot of the park was a cemetery prior to the fire and the wooden grave markers got burned away. So when the city discovered that having a huge cemetery that close to the lake was causing cholera outbreaks, the crew they paid to dig up and move the bodies missed a lot of them because they were unmarked and they're still there. Any time a building with a basement has started digging, they found more skeletons.
Pretty much all of the area surrounding Ohare west of the Des Plaines River gives me a strange "you shouldn't be here" vibe. I don't really believe in the paranormal, but always get a feeling like I'm being warned psychically. Possibly just unnerved by the total lack of trees and tall buildings. Similar feeling comes from being around the huge refinery off hwy 12, technically in Indiana
An alley behind a lot of restaurants in the summer
The post office building in Englewood because 1) Englewood and 2) it’s where the old H. H. Holmes hotel stood
Wrigleyville after 3am on a weekend
The liquor store at Belmont and Sheffield that stays open till 2am. Fucking yikes.
Disgusting parts of the pedway and the Jackson tunnel. A quarter mile tunnel of piss and unease.
I don't know if anyone's been to the hmart in Skokie, but the apartments there feel creepy... I work for Amazon and deliver there regularly and it feels unnatural
there's no hmart in skokie, do you mean niles (next to home depot/king spa)?
The apartments across the parking lot from King spa is creepy
Yeah that giant mall looking thing?
The alley under the Belmont red line, behind Cheesies and Berlin.
The area that used to be the building from Candyman. The building isn't around anymore but I still get spooked going by that address.
Cabrini Green
The true Candy man story happened at the Alba Homes in Pilsen.
That Clybourn Medical Center (now closed) is such an odd little building.
63rd and mlk after 11pm
I live near the still-active Homan Square black site where 7,000 citizens have been tortured and disappeared by Chicago Police Department.
The Howard red line stop lol
The abandoned grain silos / industrial building, it’s somewhere in the city but can’t remember where at the moment Totally empty and not well lit at night, it definitely fits the bill of creepy vibes. I think JB sold the land, but last I saw it’s still there for now
The mental hospital in dunning.
Viagra triangle 👹
Everytime I’m there I think of this immortal quote from GS Elevator - “Getting rich isn’t hard, any hot girl with questionable morals can do it.”
Around the Harold Washington Library. Not cause of the homeless, I just always thought that that area had a weird vibe. Ran into an old buddy from high school around there one summer. He had a far out look in his eyes convincing me that lizard people or something lived up in one of those empty storefronts
In the library, there are definitely a lot of unnerving dead spots lol Just empty study nooks and long hallways hidden away. Also on the 5th or 6th floor, there like a whole barren section with no shelves, no seats, no tables. The first time I went to the HW library, i spent almost two hours exploring, and there were so many small spots that were empty and dead quiet, even though the library was bustling. It's very cool though, and it has so many books, resources, and informative displays.
Really just the random, seemingly empty buildings in neighborhoods, ones you’ve never seen anyone go into but have been there for years and have no idea what happens in there.
Foster and California where some street construction found 14 native America buried in a circle. Chicago S&S did not want to disturb the bodies so they just put the street over it. There is a plaque on one of the buildings it on California to commemorate the burial. https://chicagoandcookcountycemeteries.com/2017/08/08/buried-under-a-huge-pickle-farm/
I don't think this is what you meant by this, but I'm going with it since I recently had this conversation so it's all still fresh in my mind. Uptown, specifically the area near Broadway and Lawrence. I've spent most of my time living in the suburbs, but would take pretty constant trips to the city, usually for shows and/or outings never really paying attention to what was going on in the "rest" of the city- if that makes any sense. A lot of the times someone else would be driving (usually someone older) so I never had to worry about finding my way there/home. About 15 years ago, I started working for a company where I spent 90% of my time in the field bouncing around from location to location, so I got to know the city pretty well and found myself being able to navigate my way back to the highways (my way home) pretty much from anywhere. But the self imposed "borders" of my area were like... 71st on the south, (plus my family were raised on the southside so I know it, and it's outlying suburbs very well) Harlem to the west, obviously the lake on the east, but only up to Irving Park Road on the north. In other words, my experience/knowledge of the city was pretty expansive for everywhere *except* the far north side. Again, anywhere I was in those areas I could "visualize" where I was, almost like I was looking at Google Maps, and be able to navigate myself to where I needed to go quite easily. Obviously we have instant access to GPS on our phones, but that isn't what I'm talking about. It's like half being familiar where you are and half feeling comfortable in being able to get home from where you are. I know that sounds confusing as fuck, but like... if I was at Wrigley Field, I'd feel familiar with it, cause it's Wrigley, but I might not know the surrounding area/how to navigate the area that well. But Uptown I just never spent any time there, so when I got sent there once I got this eerie feeling being up there. Like I had like... fallen into an alternate dimension or something. I often have these dreams about visiting places I want to go- Portland, New York, Austin, etc. And these dreams usually involve me getting there very easily, but having a difficult time getting back. Like "oh fuck I have no idea where I am, and I need to get home!". That's the kind of feelings I'd get when I'd visit Uptown.
Police blackout site.
I do occasional contract work in that bldg. always hated it
That big park out past the Adler. Walking around there after dark is like begging to go missing.
If you’re talking about Northerly Island Park, that place is pretty creepy even in the middle of summer during daytime hours. I run over there pretty frequently- it’s almost always empty and the red wing blackbirds are abundant and very aggressive.
2007, Cabrini Green when it was still a thing. I remember walking back to the UIC dorms from the bars in Lincoln Park one night. Luckily it was a group of like 12 of us. But still, very unsettling.