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“Bright lights and polished marble out front, sure. But dig into those sub-levels, and you'll find exhibits that were never on the brochure.”

Description - Exterior

The Museum looms like a forgotten temple, its neoclassical bulk flanked by towering columns and broad stone steps worn smooth by a million schoolchildren's feet. At night, the building glows faintly in the fog, caught between the hush of the Midway Plaisance and the static roar of Lake Michigan. A single red lamp burns in an upper window that no one can reach. Veil-sensitive visitors report a hum in their bones as they approach.

Description - Interior

Inside, the echo of footsteps never quite matches your own. Gleaming exhibits of engines, coal mines, and space capsules stretch under arched ceilings, but some corridors are colder than others—and some displays, it’s said, move when unobserved. A lower level labeled “Maintenance” isn’t on the official map. No one talks about the sealed exhibit marked “Future Vision – 1933.”

History

Originally the Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World’s Fair, it was reborn as the Museum of Science and Industry in 1933. A triumph of technology, education, and civic pride, it now hosts Chicago’s boldest celebration of human achievement. But artifacts from the World’s Fair remain hidden in vaults, and some staff whisper that the building remembers being something else—something older.

Owned By

Technically city-owned, but heavily funded and influenced by South Side industrialists and a quiet faction of the University of Chicago’s arcane research division.

Employees

• Gerald Hammersley – Director; stern, bureaucratic, hides his fear behind red tape
• Dr. Louise Vega – Curator of Experimental Sciences; sharp-eyed, Veil-curious
• “Pops” Brenner – Veteran security guard, talks to mannequins when he thinks no one’s around
• Rita Malone – Elevator operator who knows every sublevel, never says much
• Ray Hanley – Maintenance; missing one eye, doesn’t explain how
• Miss Tilda – Gift shop clerk, part-time medium (unlicensed)

Regulars

• Dr. Myron Kranz – A math professor who keeps requesting access to the closed wings
• Sister Camilla – Nun who walks the halls humming hymns to the machines
• “Switch” Tandy – A petty thief who swears one of the exhibits showed him his death
• Billy E – ICB presence, uses the museum’s underground loading dock for “delivery experiments”
• Cece Fields – Civic booster with secret access to the city’s Veil sensor nodes
• Harper – Young girl who got lost during a field trip in ’51 and speaks Latin in her sleep now

Notes

• The basement boiler room predates the rest of the building and includes sealed iron doors no one has opened in decades.
• The replica coal mine has a segment that doesn’t match any blueprints—it turns deeper and colder for a few minutes at a time.
• A submarine exhibit was delivered ahead of schedule in ’53. The captain’s log inside is written in future dates.
• Spirit sightings peak around school tour hours, suggesting something responds to youthful energy or curiosity.
• Dr. Vega’s private experiments are starting to attract the wrong kind of attention from the Arcane Division.
• One of the mannequin docents—“Professor Edison”—is no longer on its pedestal but still appears in photographs.