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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.

    Tours

    In a dark room, people sit on a bed and watch a projection of silhouette figures on a wall

    Enhance your visit

    Visitors experience What Happened Next? on a guided tour of the Historic Apartments, photo by Robert King.

    The National Public Housing Museum is dedicated to preserving, sharing, and celebrating the stories of the millions of people who have lived in public housing, highlighting their resilience, struggles, and triumphs.

    Join one of our talented educators on an immersive tour and step into the historic heart of the National Public Housing Museum, book your group tour, or explore on your own with our free digital guide or other self-guided offerings.

    Guided Tours

    A restored 1930s apartment kitchen
    Book your tour

    Historic Apartments Tours

    Step into three restored historical apartments at the National Public Housing Museum. These guided, immersive tours are the heart of the museum experience, highlighting the voices and public housing stories of families who lived in Chicago’s Jane Addams Homes between 1938 and 1976.

    Get tickets
    Museum visitors looking at a case of everyday objects
    Now booking!

    Group Tours

    For schools and other groups of 10 or more—from guided interactive tours of our Historic Apartments to educational field trips to engaging self-guided outings, explore history, personal stories, art, policy, and culture at the National Public Housing Museum.

    Plan a Group Visit

    Self-Guided Tours

    • Over-the-shoulder view of someone holding a phone with the logo for the National Public Housing Museum visible on it
      Explore on your own

      Free digital guide

      Hear stories from public housing and explore the museum on your own with Bloomberg Connects! Our digital guide takes you behind the scenes with multimedia tours, audio stories from public housing residents, and expanded access to our exhibits and other offerings.
      Get the digital guide
    • Self-Guided

      Fire, Fire, Gentrifier Walking Tour

      Through photos, oral history, music, and dance, the National Public Housing Museum and Blu Rhythm Collective are proud to present Stories from the Redline: Fire Fire Gentrifier, a self-guided tour of a people’s history of Lincoln Park. This tour excavates the hidden and repressed history of urban renewal, and explores the struggles of the Young Lords to organize, raise political awareness, and resist gentrification.
      Take the tour!
    • A yellow sign in front of a house that says “This Home, At 6823 S. Aberdeen was legally stolen from Black couple Mr. & Mrs. James and Lula Malone on October 30, 1963 in a widespread land sale contract scam. This crime was never brought to justice. Reparations are due.
      Self-Guided

      Inequity for Sale Walking Tour

      A self-guided walking tour in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood sharing the history of land sale contracts and displacement through the lens of artist and activist Tonika Lewis Johnson’s Inequity for Sale landmarker project.
      Take the tour
    • A glass brick and brass plaque embedded in concrete
      Partner tour

      The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project

      Embedded on the Taylor Street sidewalk outside of the National Public Housing Museum, a glass marker commemorates Joseph Lovings, who was killed during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. This memorial is part of the wider Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project, which installed 38 markers across the city and created resources for visitors to learn more about the history of Chicago’s neighborhoods and the individuals who lost their lives to the violence of Chicago’s Red Summer.
      Explore the markers