“When are the Free Days at the Brookfield Zoo in November and December, 2020?”

While the Shedd Aquarium is closed, the Lincoln Park Zoo in Lincoln Park on the North Side of Chicago and Brookfield Zoo in west suburban Brookfield, Illinois remain open, as I mentioned yesterday in “Chicago Museum Closures, Part 2.” However, one must make a free reservation in advance to visit the Lincoln Park Zoo and purchase tickets in advance to visit the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo. [According to W.T.T.W., Chicago’s largest P.B.S. television station, next year, though, the Lincoln Park Zoo plans to be closed from the 4^th of January through the 4^th of March and Brookfield Zoo will be closed from the 1^st of January through the 28^th of February.] Tuesdays and Thursdays in November and Mondays and Tuesdays in December through Tuesday, December 22, A.D. 2020 are free at the Brookfield Zoo thanks to xfinity, but one must still reserve tickets in advance.[1] Please keep in mind that even when admission is free, parking still costs $15.

FREE DAYS AT THE BROOKFIELD ZOO

November	Tuesday, November 3, A.D. 2020 Thursday, November 5, A.D. 2020 Tuesday, November 10, A.D. 2020 Thursday, November 12, A.D. 2020 Tuesday, November 17, A.D. 2020 Thursday, November 19, A.D. 2020 Tuesday, November 24, A.D. 2020 Thursday, November 26, A.D. 2020
December	Tuesday, December 1, A.D. 2020 Monday, December 7, A.D. 2020 Tuesday, December 8, A.D. 2020 Monday, December 14, A.D. 2020 Tuesday, December 15, A.D. 2020 Monday, December 21, A.D. 2020 Tuesday, December 22, A.D. 2020

If one wants to reserve tickets for Holiday Magic, one must reserve general admission and parking on the following dates: the 27^th through the 29^th of November; the 2^nd through the 6^th of December; the 9^th through the 13^th of December; the 16^th through the 20^th of December; and the 26^th through the 31^st of December. There is no overlap between the free days and Holiday Magic.

HOLIDAY MAGIC AT BROOKFIELD ZOO

November

Friday, November 27, A.D. 2020

Saturday, November 28, A.D. 2020

Sunday, November 29, A.D. 2020

December

Wednesday, December 2, A.D. 2020

Thursday, December 3, A.D. 2020

Friday, December 4, A.D. 2020

Saturday, December 5, A.D. 2020

Sunday, December 6, A.D. 2020

Wednesday, December 9, A.D. 2020

Thursday, December 10, A.D. 2020

Friday, December 11, 2020

Saturday, December 12, A.D. 2020

Sunday, December 13, A.D. 2020

Wednesday, December 16, A.D. 2020

Thursday, December 17, A.D. 2020

Friday, December 18, A.D. 2020

Saturday, December 19, A.D. 2020

Sunday, December 20, A.D. 2020

Saturday, December 26, A.D. 2020 (2^nd Day of Christmas)

Sunday, December 27, A.D. 2020 (3^rd Day of Christmas)

Monday, December 28, A.D. 2020 (4^th Day of Christmas)

Tuesday, December 29, A.D. 2020 (5^th Day of Christmas)

Wednesday, December 30, A.D. 2020 (6^th Day of Christmas)

Thursday, December 31, A.D. 2020 (7^th Day of Christmas/New Year’s Eve)

Founded to realize the vision of Edith Rockefeller McCormick (1872-1932) for a cage-less zoo in Chicagoland, the Chicago Zoological Society operates the Brookfield Zoo on land that belongs to the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (which recently re-branded as the Forest Preserves of Cook County). Essentially, the C.Z.S. has the same kind of relationship with the Forest Preserves of Cook County that the Chicago Academy of Sciences,[2] the Chicago Historical Society,[3] The Field Museum of Natural History, the John G. Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, and the Lincoln Park Zoological Society have with the Chicago Park District. Chicago Tribune editorial cartoonist John T. McCutcheon (1870-1949) served as the first President of the Chicago ZoologicalSocietyfrom 1921 to 1948. Architect Edwin Clark (1878-1967), who also designed two homes for Mister and Mistress James Ward Thorne,[4] a library in a third home,[5] and the first twelve Thorne Miniature Rooms,[6] designed the original buildings for Brookfield Zooin the early 1920s and early ‘30s.[7] The Brookfield Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (A.Z.A.), formerly the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums. It also belongs to the World Associations of Zoos & Aquariums.

The North Gate Main Entrance stands at the intersection of 31^st Street, west of 1^st Avenue and the Des Plaines River. It is east of Salt Creek. The address of the North Gate Main Entrance is 8400 31^st Street, Brookfield, Illinois 60513.

The South Gate Main Entrance parking lot is adjacent to Riverside Brookfield High School. The Regional Transportation Authority (R.T.A.) has two different public transit methods that service Brookfield Zoo at the South Gate Main Entrance. It is a four-block-long walk north from the Hollywood Station on Metra’s B.N.S.F. Railway line, which connects Chicago to Aurora. Consequently, in good weather, families will ride the train and get off at the Hollywood stop to walk to the zoo. That train station is also labeled the “Zoo Stop.” Walk north for two blocks along Hollywood Boulevard. Then turn right to walk east for one block along Washington Avenue. Next, turn left to walk along Golf Road. Two Pace bus routes also have stops outside the South Gate Main Entrance: Route 304 and Route 331. The address of the South Gate Main Entrance is 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, Illinois 60513.

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END NOTES

[1] The Chicago Zoological Society offers free admission to Brookfield Zoo for all active, reservist, and retired officers and servicemen in the United States Armed Forces. To take advantage of this program, one must show one’s military identification card, but one must also reserve a timed ticket beforehand. Military personal and people looking to redeem library passes should click “No” on the ticket webpage (as in they are not Members) and then click on corresponding links on the next webpage.

[2] The Chicago Academy of Sciences operates the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.

[3] The Chicago Historical Society operates the Chicago History Museum in Lincoln Park.

[4] Susen Taras, “Thorne, Narcissa Niblack.” Rima Lunin Scultz and Adele Hast, editors. Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press (2001), p. 880

See also Sally Sexton Kalmbach, Mrs. Thorne’s World of Miniatures. Chicago and New Orleans: Ampersand, Inc. (2014), pages 33, 42, 43, 114, and 115

[5] Kalmbach, p. 33

[6] Kalmbach, p. 47

[7] John T. McCutcheon, Drawn from Memory: The Autobiography of John T. McCutcheon. Indianapolis and New York City: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. (1950), p. 423

See also Andrea Friederici Ross, Let the Lions Roar! The Evolution of Brookfield Zoo. Chicago Zoological Society (1997), pages 18, 20-23, 25, 39, 95, 96, 98, and 228

See also Bruce Hatton Boyer, “Creating the Thorne Rooms.” In Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago. Susan F. Rossen, editor. © The Art Institute of Chicago. New York, London, and Paris: Abbeville Press (1983), p. 19

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.