(This piece was originally written as part of an ongoing series for Tower Topics, a newsletter produced by and for the residents of Imperial Towers in Chicago. The publication was discontinued before this piece was published.)
At street-level, it’s easy to feel tiny in a sprawling
metropolis– lost amidst the mass of people and dwarfed by the towers that reach
ever higher into the sky. Perhaps that’s why so many of us choose to live
aloft, where, removed from the bustle and hustle and noise, the city seems
serene; everything made more manageable in miniature.
Whether it’s a need to shift the scale of our relationship
with our surroundings, a desire to contain and control our world, a means of simply passing the time or
something else entirely, the profusion of tiny collections, doll houses,
dioramas and model train sets must be saying something about our culture, about
our nature as humans. Koyaanisqatsi,
perhaps. Whatever the reason behind this particular obsession, Chicago offers
ample opportunity to explore and interact with various man-made microcosms.
Garfield-Clarendon
Model Railroad Club
Just a few short blocks north of Imperial Towers is a wonder
worth visiting. During Open House Chicago 2016, when hundreds of unusual and
normally exclusive buildings were open to the public I was able to stop in at
the basement of the Clarendon Park Community Center, which has been home to the
club since 1963. The club itself was formed originally in 1947.
Known as Garfield Central, the current layout includes
nearly 1,400 feet of hand laid tracks, fully signaled dual main lines,
painstakingly crafted details (including water towers trees and three large
bridges) and both urban and rural scenery. Operating at scale speed, a full
trip around the tracks takes nearly half an hour and makes this one of the
largest model railroad endeavors anywhere on earth.
Thankfully you don’t have to wait for the Architectural Society’s annual Open House or other special events to see the railroad. It is open to the public year-round on Friday nights from 7 to 9:30 PM.
Chicago History
Museum Dioramas
Closer to the loop, you can find a very different set of
miniatures within the Chicago History Museum. Captured in intricate detail are
seven scenes showing key people, places and events that defined Chicago’s
transformation from a small trading outpost to one of the largest cities in
America. Specific dioramas include a view inside the Sauganash Tavern circa
1833, the White City of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the Washington
Park Race Track as it appeared in 1884, and arguably most striking of them all,
the Chicago Fire of 1871.
No artifacts at the museum have been on display longer. Maintaining the dioramas entails ongoing restoration and renovation and repair. The first such effort was undertaken in 1951 and the most recent initiative began in 2004.
Even if you can’t make it to the museum, you can find a
great video of the dioramas here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmso0JZjga8
Thorne Miniature
Rooms
Not to be outdone by the Chicago History Museum, the Museum
of the Art Institute of Chicago has on display an impressive miniature world of
its own.
As a child, Narcissa Nidblack Thorne loved dolls and
dollhouses. As an adult with ample resources, having married the heir to a department
store fortune and traveled throughout Europe, she began to amass a collection
of miniature figures and accessories. To house this collection, in 1932 she
commissioned the construction of several rooms. This project soon became a
passion and she began overseeing the construction of even more elaborate rooms
with architecture specific to various places and time periods in European and
American history.
In the 1940’s her rooms began traveling to museums
throughout the U.S. before finding a permanent home at the Art Institute.
Today, you can get a glimpse of history through the windows of 68 separate
rooms, each built to the scale of 13 inches.
More Tiny Worlds to
Explore
Year round you can find The Great Train Story Diorama on
display at the Museum of Science and Industry. There are also a number of
extraordinary seasonal displays and events, such as the annual Lego Train Show
at Cantigny Park, the Wonderland Express at Chicago Botanic Garden, and the
Enchanted Railroad at Morton Arboretum.
So the next time the city seems overwhelming with its
constant massive construction and building projects (often matched in size only
by the ambitions and investments behind them), keep in mind that some of
Chicago’s most breathtaking displays of architecture and engineering may also
be its smallest.
About my "Exploring Chicago" series: Chicago will always be the first city I really fell in love with.
The history, the people, the food and just the feeling I had living there – it
reminded me of what it means to be at home somewhere. But Jen had lived there
her whole life and always wanted to move to Florida, and I agreed. After all,
it’s a big world with a lot to see and maybe it’s possible to become too
comfortable in one spot. So we made a bucket list of unique things we wanted to
do before we left the Windy City and as a means of saying farewell to a place
we loved, we devoted ourselves to getting to know it better, finding its hidden
streets, its local flavor and its secret history. That urban exploration has turned
into a passion that we’ve continued in Florida… but Chicago still occupies a
unique place in my personal story. This series of articles allows me to share
that intense curiosity and sense of wonder while adding yet one more dimension
to my experience – that of fond reflection.
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