For more than two decades, the indoor garden has been a cherished escape from bustling city life. But the beloved tropical garden, which has always been free to the public, is set to be replaced with a new paid digital experience.

Rescued ruins and a virtual tour of a lost masterpiece of Chicago architecture — we speak with the city’s cultural historian and a noted artist who were part of a team exploring a long-lost theater and more.

After five years of legal battles, gentrification concerns and a federal review, Barack and Michelle Obama dug shovels into the ground Tuesday during a celebratory groundbreaking on their legacy project in Jackson Park.

Brandis Friedman and a panel of guests talk about Pullman’s role in the Black labor movement and the Great Migration following the recent opening of the Pullman National Monument’s visitor center. Watch the discussion now.

Melvin Van Peebles, the groundbreaking filmmaker, playwright and musician whose work ushered in the “blaxploitation” wave of the 1970s and influenced filmmakers long after, has died. He was 89. 

Proposals to list the properties on the National Register of Historic Places cleared a key committee hearing Wednesday and will come before the Commission on Chicago Landmarks in October. 

The author of the best-selling “The House on Mango Street” is back with her first work of fiction in almost a decade, a story of memory and friendship, but also about the experiences young women endure as immigrants worldwide.

“I know people are upset but you can’t tell me there’s not bad activity there after dark,” Mike Kelly, CEO of the Chicago Park District, said in defense of gates the agency installed that are now at the center of another controversy brewing at Jackson Park.

In 2009, Adlai Stevenson III spoke with Carol Marin on “Chicago Tonight.” Even though he was a self-proclaimed “reformer,” he still found virtues in the old party machinery. Stevenson died Monday at the age of 90.

Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in suburban Darien is roughly 30 miles and a world away from downtown Chicago, but this is where a section of the city’s prized lakefront once rested. 

Slain activist Fred Hampton would have turned 73 years old last month, and though he was killed more than 50 years ago, his memory and legacy still loom large. Now Hampton’s son is seeking a landmark designation for the only surviving building with ties to Hampton’s activism.

A new outdoor exhibition in Gage Park tells the neighborhood’s history from the perspective of its residents. It’s part of a new program from the Gage Park Latinx Council that invites young people to reclaim their community’s narrative. We go for a look — and a local history lesson.

Nearly 30 years after “Candyman” was released, people are still daring one another to say the title character’s name in the mirror to summon this hook-wielding ghost. Some urban legends don’t die, they’re just reborn.

Six years ago President Barack Obama named the Pullman neighborhood a national monument. On Labor Day weekend, a new visitor center in the century-old clock tower will finally open. Geoffrey Baer visited Pullman to get an exclusive first look.

Jerry Harkness was inspired by Jackie Robinson to take up the game of basketball. He ended up becoming a civil rights trailblazer in his own right.

As Chicago inches toward the replacement of its lead service lines, officials need help identifying where those pipes are. Here’s a simple way to determine whether you’ve got lead, steel or copper lines running into your home.