Festivities

Open House Chicago

Saturday and Sunday, October 19-20, 2024

As part of Open House Chicago, the Driehaus Museum will open its doors to its historic 1926 City of Chicago landmark, the Murphy Auditorium, which it added to its campus in 2024 after an extensive renovation.

Designed by noted Chicago architects Benjamin Marshall and Charles E. Fox, who also designed the Blackstone and Drake Hotels, the Murphy originally served as a center for surgical research, education, and advancement and to develop programs for the standardization of hospitals. Erected as a monument to Dr. John B. Murphy (1857-1916), a founding member of the American College of Surgeons and considered one of the greatest clinical educators of his generation, the building’s iconic limestone exterior is Marshall’s interpretation of the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Consolation (1900) in Paris. The building features a pair of cast bronze doors produced by Tiffany Studios at the front entrance, comprising six panels depicting prominent figures in medicine’s history. It also has a towering, multicolored stained-glass window inside the auditorium.

This event is free, and no reservations are required. This event does not include admission to our exhibitions or gallery spaces next door in the Nickerson Mansion.

For more information, visit https://openhousechicago.org/