DRIEHAUS MUSEUM – 40 East Erie Street, Chicago, IL, 312 482 8933, ext. 21 or email info@driehausmuseum.org.
Q-Tips say: Loved it. Go see it, you will be awed by the beauty and splendor of the exhibit.
Mrs Q has only one word to say, which is rare for her: AWESOME! We did our own walking tour with the audio cassette which is an additional $5.00 pp. Lots of walking and some stairs but there is an elevator. $20 Adult, $12.50 Senior (65+), $10 Student with valid I.D., $10 Youth (6-12 years) Children five years and younger are free. The daily tour schedule with a docent is: Best of Both: Tiffany & Museum Highlights – 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum immerses visitors in one of the grandest residential buildings of 19th-century Chicago, the Gilded Age home of banker Samuel Mayo Nickerson. Philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus founded the museum on April 1, 2003 with a vision to influence today’s built environment by preserving and promoting architecture and design of the past. To realize his vision, Mr. Driehaus commissioned a five-year restoration effort to preserve the structure and its magnificent interiors. Today the galleries feature surviving furnishings paired with elegant, historically-appropriate pieces from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts, including important works by such celebrated designers as Herter Brothers and Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Today, the Museum is a premier example of historic preservation, offering visitors an opportunity to experience through its architecture, interiors, collection, and exhibitions how the prevailing design philosophies of the period were interpreted by artists, architects, and designers at the waning of the 19th-century and the dawn of the 20th-century.