Civic Opera House
A grand opera house shaped like a giant throne.
Key facts
- Completed 1929
- Built by utilities tycoon Samuel Insull
- Nicknamed "Insull's Throne"
- Seats about 3,500 people
- Art Deco home of the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Narration transcript
On your right now rises the majestic Civic Opera House, completed in 1929 and home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago. It was the dream of a powerful businessman named Samuel Insull, who ran the city's electric company and loved the opera. He built this enormous limestone tower in the elegant Art Deco style, with a grand row of columns along the river. Here is the detail that gives it its famous nickname: from the side, the building is shaped a bit like a giant chair, with a tall central tower like a high back and shorter wings like armrests. Because Insull built it and it looks like a throne, people started calling it Insull's Throne, and there is a story that he had it face away from the lake, with its back to the water, on purpose. Sadly for Insull, just as the opera house opened, the stock market crashed and his fortune collapsed. But the beautiful building he left behind still fills with music today, seating around three thousand five hundred people. Family tip: inside, the lobby is a breathtaking hall of marble columns and sparkling chandeliers, well worth a peek if you ever attend a show.