Early this year, a group of docents assembled to create a series of trivia questions to be used by CAC for private functions/team building offerings..
As a tribute to the Year of the Docent, here are some of those questions, a number of which directly relate to tours given by CAC. Try your luck with these:
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1. What Chicago neighborhood is named for a ship captain, whose ship marooned on a sand bar?
2. After the end of Prohibition, what establishment that still stands received liquor license #1?
3. What 19th-century US Senator from Illinois is entombed in a small park just off E. 35th Street in Chicago?
4. What are the names of the two pieces of public art often called “Chicago’s mascots”?
5. Who was the first non-indigenous settler in Chicago who is now commemorated in the name of the Michigan Avenue bridge?
6. What is Chicago’s second-tallest building?
7. What is the world’s tallest building designed by a woman architect?
8. What is the longest street in Chicago?
9. What used to be just a bank on a wandering river and today is a stretch of restaurants, bars and seating?
10. Chicago’s African American population rose from 40,000 people in 1910 to over 1 million in 1970. What is the popular name for the national movement that created these changes?
11. The west part of Millenium Park (up to the stairs) was once a ballpark, home of the Chicago White Stockings who won the pennant there in 1882.The team now has a different home and name. Give the years when they last won their league pennant and the World Series?
12. You can struggle walking against the wind down Michigan Avenue, but what was the origin of Chicago’s nickname “Windy City”?
13. How deep is the Chicago River in downtown Chicago?
14. Holloway and Company (and its successors) manufactured a popular candy at their plant at Chicago & Franklin as late as the 1980s. What was their signature product?
15. What business leader is credited with initially saving Chicago’s lakefront open to the public?
16. Who was the African American architect who designed the first (and remains the only) high rise project designed by a Black architect in downtown Chicago?
17. What iconic African American publishing company had its headquarters on Michigan Avenue?
18. What business leader is credited with initially saving Chicago’s lakefront open to the public?
19. Who was the French Jesuit missionary who set foot on what now is Chicago in the 1600’s and later died here in the Chicago area?
20. More than 100 years ago, Chicago created four major infrastructure projects to clean up the city’s water, including raising the city streets, building the Water Tower and pumping station, and constructing fresh-water intake “cribs” in Lake Michigan. What was the fourth project?
21. “On October 8, 1871, the most catastrophic fire in America up to then started. Where did the fire start?”
22. Chicago’s public transportation is defined by the iconic “L.” When did the system start?
23. What was the name of the street before it was renamed to Mies van der Rohe Way?
24. Who originally occupied the building we now call the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue?
25. In what building was FDR nominated for president in 1932?
26. What was the original name of Wrigley Field?
27. Can you name six streets within 2 miles of City Hall that have the same name as a river in Illinois?
The Trivia Team group included docents Joni Blackman Hirsch, Bob Michaelson, Steve Redfield, Ellen Shubart, Lisa Voigt, Lorie Westerman and Michael Weiland,
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This was fun! I’ve sent Ellen my top-of-head responses, 22 complete out of 27, for refutation or discarding. Go ahead and compile your own. Please post if you top me.