West Loop

This guide to the West Loop in Chicago takes you inside the Warehouse, the converted three-story factory where a New Yorker named Robert Williams opened a members-only club in 1977 for gay Black and Latino Chicagoans who had almost nowhere else to dance freely. It follows DJ Frankie Knuckles at his turntables past four in the morning, splicing tape by hand to stretch a bassline until it felt endless, and the record shops around the city fielding requests for that sound from the Warehouse. Listen for South Jefferson Street outside as you take in how ordinary the building looks today.