The History Of Chicago’s Mecca Flats Comes Alive In Floating Museum

In a new exhibition, Chicago’s Floating Museum pays homage to Bronzeville’s Mecca Flats through its Floating Monuments series. Built in 1892 as a hotel for visitors to the World’s Fair, the Mecca Flats was later converted into apartments that served Chicago’s African American community on the South Side. But by the 1950s, the building was demolished to make way for the Illinois Institute of Technology’s S.R. Crown Hall. Now, the Floating Museum is honoring the Mecca Flats’ contribution to Chicago's culture with an inflatable replica of the apartment building. Reset examines the history of the Mecca, the legacy of urban renewal and the displacement of Black residents with Faheem Majeed, artist and co-director of the Floating Museum, and Rebekah Coffman, curator of religion and community history architecture at the Chicago History Museum. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.