Thalia Hall

This guide to Thalia Hall in Chicago opens with a 2014 renovation discovery that started the venue's ghost stories, then rewinds to 1892, when Czech tavern keeper John Dusek built the hall modeled on Prague's opera houses for Bohemian immigrants in Pilsen. You'll hear about decades of weddings, a Shakespeare troupe performing in Bohemian, and meetings tied to Czechoslovak independence, before the hall went dark for decades. Stand at the back of the room under Dusek's original tin ceiling and listen.