She Magazine

Oak Park, Ill.

Published:
Story by Mary Bergin

When temperatures plummet, three things matter: fleece, hot tea and a good book.

What makes a book good? A riveting plot, compelling writing style and universal life themes all help. So will a field trip that enlivens the written word.

Put your book club on a road trip to Oak Park, Ill., nine miles west of Chicago, to better understand two smart, celebrated and peculiar men.

> Author Ernest Hemingway, the son of a music teacher and a physician, lived here 20 years. His birthplace and a museum are open for tours. Artifacts include a childhood diary and family photos that help explain the upbringing of a talented, driven and restless boy.

> Frank Lloyd Wright’s scandalous life here was the springboard for the book “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan, who documents the architect’s affair with Mamah Cheney, the wife of a customer. The couple took off for Europe, leaving behind their spouses, children and a flood of community shock and disapproval.

Anetta Ziemba fields a lot of questions as manager of the Oak Park Visitor Center, including this one: Where’s the Cheney house? It doesn’t matter that “Loving Frank” was published in 2007. She’ll point the way to the brick home that Wright designed for Edwin and Mamah Cheney, but the building is not open to the public. Rent a headset for a self-guided neighborhood tour or buy a map of this and other Wright structures.

No city contains more Wright-designed buildings than Oak Park, where the ambitious architect lived from 1889 to 1909. Tours of his work studio and home — where six children were raised — are possible all year; expect a gussied up interior during the holidays. www.gowright.org, 312-994-4000

What you’ll see are Wright’s early and sometimes awkward attempts to define an architectural style for America, in response to his frustration with French chateaus, British tudors and other European designs.

Also open for guided tours is Wright’s Unity Temple, a National Historic Landmark and community gathering space that is home to a Unitarian congregation. www.utrf.org, 708-383-8873

The sleek but simple Unity Temple is in the same downtown district as stunning churches of Christian denominations. These include First United Church (where Hemingway was baptized), which has an outdoor labyrinth; Calvary Memorial, a Baptist church with a colorful stone exterior; Grace Episcopal, whose English Gothic Revival design includes a carillon tower; and St. Edmunds, a Catholic church with stained glass imported from Germany.

These buildings tend to be locked, so include a Sunday stay and plan a little church hopping.

All these places are within a walk of each other, and a convenient home base is The Write Inn, an old-time hotel that is across from the Hemingway sites. No two rooms are alike; some include mini kitchens.

Cranky elevators sleep, thankfully, from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. The hotel bistro specializes in seafood and French cuisine. www.writeinn.com, 708-383-4800

Another option: Book a suite at the Carleton of Oak Park Hotel, built as high-class lodging in 1928. www.carletonhotel.com, 708-848-5000

Need a nibble? Make a meal out of appetizers, cocktails and jazz on Fridays and Saturdays at Dragon Lounge, inside the Sushi House. www.mysushihouse.com, 708-660-8899

Or, head to the original Fuego Loco Cantina and Salseria for a margarita sampler and dunk hot tortilla chips into five types of salsa. www.fuegoloco.com, 708-763-0000

Boutique shopping rules along Marion Street, and product samplings are customary at Marion Street Cheese Market. Look for deep discounts at Fashions Anew, a resale shop with high-end clothing. Feel good about indulging in a shake or split at Oberweis, an ice cream shop for a no-hormone dairy that’s been in business since 1951. {

Last: Both regional Metra trains and Chicago’s elevated city transit lines stop in downtown Oak Park, so don’t fret about wintry driving.