Aragon Ballroom

This guide to the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago tells how brothers William and Andrew Karzas spent two million dollars in 1926 to build an escape from Illinois winters: a painted plaster sky of drifting clouds and twinkling stars overhead. It follows their designer, John Eberson, a movie-palace architect who specialized in disguising rooms as outdoor courtyards, and his choice to model this one on a Moorish castle courtyard from Spain's Aragon region. Listen for what regulars say about the dance floor's construction, laid with cork, felt, and steel springs beneath the maple boards.