Skip to primary menu Skip to main content Skip to footer content

Our mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home.

    Open House Chicago

    Aerial view of the National Public Housing Museum

    2026 Site

    Photo by Angie McMonigal Photography.

    • National Public Housing Museum, 919 S. Ada Street, Chicago, IL 60607

    • Free
    • Plan your itinerary

    Explore our civic and cultural home on Chicago’s near West Side as part of Open House Chicago!

    In partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, the National Public Housing Museum is one of more than 200 architecturally, historically, or culturally significant sites welcoming visitors October 17–18, 2026, at this free annual architecture fest.

    Plan your itinerary and find out more at OpenHouseChicago.org.

    All weekend

    Special Access: Historic Apartments
    10 am–5 pm
    Get a peek at three recreated apartments at the National Public Housing Museum. These historic apartments share the stories of different families who lived in the Jane Addams Homes between 1938 and 1975. Normally accessible only as part of an interactive guided tour, the apartments will be open for free exploration throughout Open House Chicago. 

    Self-guided Visits
    10 am–5 pm
    Visitors can also enjoy a self-guided visit that includes architectural artifacts salvaged from the Jane Addams Homes, oral history listening stations where former residents share memories of Edgar Miller’s Animal Court sculptures, and a chance to browse and play our collection of records from musicians who grew up in public housing.

    Saturday, October 17

    Chat with the Architects: Women and Public Housing Architecture
    2 pm
    Meet Terran Wilson (AIA), Principal at LBBA, and Mejay Gula (AIA, NOMA), Architect and Studio Director at site design group ltd., for a chat about their work and the project to remake the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes into the National Public Housing Museum. In conversation with Lisa Yun Lee, Executive Director and Chief Curator at the Museum, the wide-ranging chat will also touch on women in architecture and the stories of women architects, planners, and designers who were instrumental in shaping public housing, such as Mary Long Rogers, landscape architect for Jane Addams Homes, and Beverly Lorraine Green, the first African American woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States.

    Upcoming events

    Dusty scan of a vintage photograph showing green space surrounding a public housing complex

    Inside/Outside: The Connection Between Parks, Housing, and Vibrant Communities

    Exploring how safe, accessible, and high-quality outdoor spaces can strengthen public housing communities, in collaboration with Trust for Public Land

    Read more
    Detail of an landscape plan showing trees and green spaces as part of a housing complex

    Chat with the Architects: Women and Public Housing Architecture

    Meet Terran Wilson and Mejay Gula for an Open House Chicago chat about women and public housing architecture.

    Read more
    A diverse group of people gather in a circle to have a discussion

    Collective Study Hour: Evidence from the HOPE VI Program

    Join us for a series of small group conversations around a new report that examines the long-term impacts of the HOPE VI housing program

    Read more