Thalia Hall, Chicago

Thalia Hall, Chicago

This ornate former theater was built as a replica of an old opera house in Prague, and in its heyday served as the epicenter of Chicago Bohemian culture.

This ornate former theater was built as a replica of an old opera house in Prague, and in its heyday served as the epicenter of Chicago Bohemian culture. Plays and operas were performed here, and much of the constitution of Czechoslovakia was drafted within these walls as well (at the end of World War I). Nearly a century later, after having served mainly as a residence for the local homeless, things seem to be looking up for Thalia Hall, with the swank Ristorante Al Teatro now resident inside.