This tour will explore the world of Chicago’s Union Stock Yard, which opened on Christmas Day in 1865. Serving as the public face of Chicago for decades (think Carl Sandburg’s “Hog Butcher for the World”), it created and defined the working-class neighborhoods around it, and controlled the livelihoods of thousands of families.

The event begins with a private tour of the Packingtown Museum led by curator Dominic A. Pacyga. The museum officially opened in October 2021, and is located at 1400 West 46th Street in The Plant, built in 1925 for Buehler Brothers. The tour will explore themes ranging from labor and immigration to food production and community development.

We will then board a chartered bus for a two-hour tour led by Pacyga through five stockyard neighborhoods - Back of the Yards, Canaryville, Bridgeport, McKinley Park, and Bronzeville. The tour will explore the working-class housing, as well as the churches, schools, and parks that defined the communities. Stops will include the landmark Union Stock Yard gate and St. Gabriel’s Church, both designed by Burnham & Root.