Rooted Chicago is a neighborhood discovery platform bringing history, culture, nature, local places and place-based storytelling together in one location-aware experience.
Curated neighborhood stories, walking routes, and local discoveries including architecture, gardens, history, food, and events, block by block.
Woodlawn is our pilot neighborhood.
A living neighborhood experience combining history, architecture, culture, nature and local discovery through self-guided walks, Field Notes, audio, multilingual storytelling and location-aware exploration.
14-stop walking experience
5 languages
Field Notes
Audio storytelling
Prairie Exhibition
Location-aware discovery
Rooted Chicago Tours are self-guided neighborhood experiences you follow on your phone: Neighborhood history, architecture, food, gardens, and the people who made/make a community what it is today.
Start where you are. Walk/cycle a route, read the stories behind the buildings, find the garden on the corner, and eat somewhere worth the trip.
Walkable loops, timed and mapped.
The people and events behind the block.
Greystones, churches, and what came after.
Community plots, prairie, and street trees.
Counters, bakeries, and long-running kitchens.
Murals, markets, and things worth a detour.
Rooted Chicago Field Notes · Launch issue
Step into Woodlawn. Follow the neighborhood histories of Lorraine Hansberry, Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, revisit the rise and fall of Washington Park National Bank, and discover the homes, schools, churches, businesses, gardens, and gathering places that shaped—and continue to shape—this South Side community.
Free to use, on any phone, no download.
Woodlawn pilotEvery Rooted Chicago neighborhood holds more than one kind of experience. Start wherever you're curious.
Self-guided neighborhood stories, architecture, people and places.
A living neighborhood magazine of history, culture, food, people and place.
Gardens, landscapes, ecology, environmental history and outdoor exhibitions.
Food, businesses, landmarks and neighborhood discoveries.
Family experiences, youth learning, audio and interactive exploration.
Two questions, one suggested walk. No account, no signup.
Where you are · optional
1 · What pulls you in?
2 · How long do you have?
Stops along the way
Each new neighborhood is built the same way — with residents first. Want yours next? Tell us below.
Woodlawn is the prototype.
Rooted Chicago is designed to grow neighborhood by neighborhood, with each experience shaped by the history, institutions, businesses, landscapes and people of that community.
The neighborhoods below are not additional tours. Each one is a future edition of the platform.
Jazz-era landmarks, greystone rows, and the Black Metropolis story.
Murals, bakeries, and a walk along 18th Street.
West Side gardens, historic homes, and neighborhood kitchens.
Rooted Chicago Tours started with a simple observation: the best of Chicago is rarely on the tourist route. It's a garden built on a vacant lot, a bakery three generations deep, a building whose story explains the whole block.
We work neighborhood by neighborhood, with residents, block clubs, historians, and small business owners. They tell us what matters; we handle the research, the routing, and the writing.
Woodlawn is our pilot. What we learn there shapes every neighborhood that follows.
Rooted Chicago works with institutions, community organizations, cultural partners and neighborhood stakeholders to create engaging place-based experiences that connect people to the stories, landscapes and communities around them.
Start a conversationWhat we can support
Questions, partnerships, press, or a neighborhood you think we should walk next.