Neighborhood Tour of Fulton Market with Food

Discover the dramatic transformations of Chicago’s most rapidly booming neighborhood on this walking tour. Over the course of this two-hour excursion, you’ll get a glimpse of Fulton Market’s meatpacking past and enjoy a taste of its gourmand present.

We call our Fulton Market food tour the “Factories to Calories” tour because of the area’s shift from a place of production of appliances, furniture and meat products to a hub of consumption of food and drink. The walking tour starts with a grand view to see the train and highway systems that made Fulton Market into a vital industrial and meatpacking district throughout much of the 1900s.

From there, we’re off on a one-mile jaunt through a neighborhood defined by change. As recently as the 1980’s and 90’s, Fulton Market was home to underground parties, drug busts, and low-rent art galleries. Today instead, you will find high-end retailers and offices of massive corporations like Google and McDonald’s among historic architecture.

Fulton Market Tour Highlights
-A grand view of the railroad tracks and surrounding industrial buildings
-Redeveloped meatpacking facilities, now trendy restaurants
-A giant cold storage facility, now Google offices
-“Gourmet Food Trend Row”
-The striking art deco Richter Foods building
-Hidden clues in the landscape tied to the meatpacking past

Walking Tour Stories and Ideas
-Chicago’s meatpacking history and the role of Fulton Market
-Impact of transportation infrastructure on neighborhood identity
-The industrial neighborhood disappearing before our eyes
-Family businesses and traditions
-Urban renewal and redevelopment
-Labor history and the Haymarket Affair