About the Driehaus Museum

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum immerses visitors in one of the grandest residential buildings of nineteenth-century Chicago, the Gilded Age home of banker Samuel Mayo Nickerson. Chicago philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus founded the museum on April 1, 2003 with a vision to influence today’s built environment by preserving and promoting architecture and design of the past. To realize his vision, Mr. Driehaus commissioned a five-year restoration effort to preserve the structure and its magnificent interiors.

Today, the Museum is a premier example of historic preservation, offering visitors an opportunity to experience how the prevailing design philosophies of the period were interpreted by artists, architects, and designers at the waning of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century.