Chicago Travel Forum

If my memory is good, during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, a man has built a special hotel to trap his gests in order to kill and to rob them. He had several worker teams, so nobody knew where the traps were.

Do you know the complete story ?
Does the building still exist ? What was its address ?
Is there some info about this affair at the Chicago History Museum ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

There was a book written called The Devil in White City.

The 'Castle' was at 63rd and Wallace, it doesn't seem to be there any more on satellite view

There's a terrific book about that very subject called "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, it's a good read, interweaves the story of the 1893 Columbian Exposition, architect Daniel Burnham and HH Holmes, the serial killer.

The murder castle is gone (I believe it burned down in the late 1890s), it was at Wallace and 63rd Street, in Englewood. There's no reason to go to that neighborhood today, in fact it's one of the worst neighborhoods in Chicago.

If you are not inclined to read a whole book about it, Wikipedia has a synopsis of the story or do a search on google for Murder Castle or HH Holmes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

I know the Chicago History Museum has a section on the two World's Fairs that were held in Chicago (1893 and 1933-4) but I don't recall if it has much on HH Holmes.

Hi Kristi, Happy Easter

Looks like we were posting at the same time Dave! Happy Easter :-)

The Chicago Architecture Foundation does a couple of tours revolving around the Columbian Exposition, I can't imagine what they would show you on the Devil in the White City bus tour as there's not much left, the murder castle is gone, almost everything associated with the exposition is gone as the buildings weren't designed to last. If you go to the Museum of Science and Industry on your visit, that is the one building that did survive, it was the Palace of Fine Arts and designed to be more sturdy than the rest. The gold statue that you see on the attached website isn't even original, it's a replica and quite a bit smaller than the original.

http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=117