10/13/20: Superman's Metropolis & U. of Chicago

As Steven had been a big Superman fan in his youth, we couldn't resist the chance of stopping for a while in Metropolis in southern Illinois on our way to Chicago last October to visit our daughter and her family. If you were ever a Superman fan, you no doubt remember Metropolis as the hometown of Clark Kent aka Superman. Everything in town was definitely supersized! 

The mural honored Metropolis' John Steele who, during WW II's D-Day, jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division into Normandy, France. His jump ended with an entangled parachute on the steeple of the church in Sainte-Mère-Église. Steele was left hanging over the city for several hours before eventually being taken prisoner by the Germans. When he returned to France on the 20th anniversary of D-Day, Steele found he was memorialized by the village with a mannequin on the church steeple and a depiction in a stained-glass window.  “He went back to Normandy and toured the beaches. They had a hotel and a bar named after him. They treated him like royalty basically. He signed autographs for several hours.” 

Metropolis, founded in 1839, was officially declared the Hometown of Superman in 1972 by the Illinois House of Representatives. Every June, the town hosts the annual Superman Celebration.

The mild-mannered Clark Kent used this telephone booth in downtown Metropolis!

Look in the middle of the photo for the 15-foot tall statue of Superman!

Noel Neill acted in almost one hundred movies but she is best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane in the TV series The Adventures of Superman. Neill was also known as "The first lady of Metropolis" and was a favorite celebrity guest of numerous Superman celebrations.

On we drove to Chicago and, since we had some time before we could see our daughter and her family, we stopped at the Frederick C. Robie House that was designed by acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I have been a big Wright fan since we toured homes he'd designed in Phoenix and elsewhere over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, the home wasn't open for tourists that day.

Nearby was the University of Chicago campus which seemed like a perfect place for a stroll.

Oriental Institute:

On the campus was the site of the first self-sustaining Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction from 1942. It occurred when physicist Enrico Fermi and his team established the nuclear reaction in makeshift laboratories. Their success ushered in the atomic age and opened the potential to modern science.  

The Henry Hinds Laboratory for the Geophysical Sciences:

Views of Rockefeller Chapel on the campus: 

Next post: Some fun Highway 66 sights as we headed home to Denver last fall.

Posted back home in Denver on August 31st, 2021, on what would have been my mum's 102nd birthday. After an almost three-month road trip and driving more than 10,500 miles north, way east, then into the Deep South before heading back via another stop in Chicago to see our darling 13-month-old granddaughter, it's great being home to catch our breath for a couple of weeks before we head to Europe for a couple of months!