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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.

    Museum Exhibitions

    We look forward to welcoming you to the National Public Housing Museum.

    Located in the last remaining building of the historic Jane Addams Homes, our museum is committed to preserving the profound legacy of public housing and fostering a nuanced understanding of its impact on communities.

    Admission is free, with tickets required for the Historic Apartment Tours.

    Now open!

    Explore all exhibitions
    A map with a red line and silhouetted figures are projected on a wall

    Historic Apartments

    Three recreated apartments at the heart of the National Public Housing Museum showcase the stories of diverse families who lived in the Jane Addams Homes.

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    Museum visitors look at a midcentury high school letterman sweater

    History Lessons

    History Lessons offers intimate glimpses of life in public housing through everyday objects and personal memories.

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    On a sideways piece of lined notebook paper with old fashioned handwritten text, a pencil drawing of three indigenous women wrapped in blankets look directly at the viewer. At the top of the page is a sliver of a Chicago street map.

    Still Here

    Still Here uses art, archives, and public dialogue to explore and connect histories of displacement on the land where the National Public Housing Museum is located. As an institution that addresses displacement of public housing residents, we also want to understand the forcible removal of Indigenous peoples that came before and grapple with how those experiences are interwoven…

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    A Black person sits on a couch and holds a baby on her lap

    Feeling At Home

    Beyond the uniform exteriors of public housing buildings, there are apartment units with unique, enthralling, and carefully curated interiors.

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    A screen-printed poster shows a black blob with squiggly lines that depict a virus or bacteria and a sun shining on towards it on a light-blue background. The text reads, “PLANNED HOUSING FIGHTS DISEASE.”

    Art for All, Posters for the People

    No government program has left a more visible legacy on the American landscape than the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. Along with the construction of hundreds of federally funded buildings, including the Jane Addams Homes, the program employed thousands of artists.

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    A black and white image from the 1940s shows a courtyard surrounded by brick buildings. In the courtyard, children in swimsuits play in water spraying out from the concrete and climb on stone animal statues surrounding the fountain.

    Animal Court

    Experience the enchanting seven-piece sculpture Animal Court by Edgar Miller, which has been lovingly restored and placed in our courtyard. The sculpture garden is free and open to the public during museum hours…

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