Across most of the city, Open House Chicago works the same way both days. A building opens in the morning, closes in the afternoon, and you visit whenever it suits you. Ukrainian Village handles Sunday differently. Three of its biggest sites are working churches that hold services that morning, so they open their doors late and one after another. Holy Trinity opens at noon. St. Nicholas opens around 1 p.m. Sts. Volodymyr & Olha opens at 1:30.
The festival runs Oct. 17–18 for its 16th year, with more than 200 sites across 30 neighborhoods. It's free, and you don't need to register in advance. Visitors just show up during each site's hours. If you live between Division and Chicago Avenue, you can walk the whole thing. Just plan the walk around the church schedules.
Seven Doors Within Walking Distance
The Chicago Architecture Center puts nine sites in its "Ukrainian Village / West Town" area. Intuit Art Museum on Milwaukee and Ignite Glass Studios on Armour Street sit farther east. The other seven are close together inside the neighborhood.
| Site | Address | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral | 1121 N. Leavitt St. | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Noon–4 p.m. |
| Kenar Studio | 1007 N. Wolcott Ave. | 11 a.m.–5 p.m. | 11 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| St. Helen Roman Catholic Church | 2315 W. Augusta Blvd. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral | 835 N. Oakley Blvd. per CAC | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m., first floor limited until about 1 p.m. |
| Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church | 739 N. Oakley Blvd. | Noon–5 p.m. | 1:30–5 p.m. |
| Ukrainian National Museum | 2249 W. Superior St. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. | 10 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art | 2320 W. Chicago Ave. | 11 a.m.–4 p.m. | 11 a.m.–4 p.m. |
Check the St. Nicholas address before you head out. The festival listing gives 835 N. Oakley Blvd., but the cathedral's own visitor page lists 2238 W. Rice St. under "Getting Here." Both describe the same building, which takes up the corner. Plan to walk up from whichever side you live closest to.
UIMA's hours change for the weekend too. The museum is usually open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., but for Open House it opens at 11 a.m. both days.
Why Sunday Runs in Reverse
The St. Nicholas listing explains the schedule. Divine Liturgy is celebrated Sunday, and access to the whole first floor is limited until the last service ends at around 1 p.m. The cathedral is officially open from 10 a.m., but the main floor, the reason most people come, isn't really available until early afternoon.
That main floor is worth the wait. St. Nicholas was completed in 1915 and modeled on the 11th-century St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. It has 13 green cupolas that rise 167 feet, and a nine-tiered golden chandelier from Greece with 480 lights hangs from the highest dome. Docents will be on the main floor and in the choir loft. The lower-level hall with restrooms is open, but the sacristy is not.
Holy Trinity has the shortest Sunday hours of the seven, just four, from noon to 4 p.m. It's one of only two churches Louis Sullivan designed. It was completed in 1903 for a parish founded in 1892, the oldest Orthodox parish in Chicago, and it was named a Chicago Landmark in 1979. The tour is self-guided, with parishioners on hand to answer questions. Hats, food, drinks and pets aren't allowed inside, so finish your coffee before you go in.
Sts. Volodymyr & Olha opens last, at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The church was completed in 1971 in a Byzantine style. A large mosaic on the front shows the baptism of Rus-Ukraine in 988, and inside is a hand-carved oak iconostasis. Ten-minute talks on the architecture and iconography run throughout the day. Visitors are asked to stay behind the marble stairs that lead up to the icon screen.
A Saturday Loop
Saturday is the easy day. Every site is open by noon, and the three churches keep their full hours.
- Holy Trinity, 10 a.m. Start here because it closes earliest, at 4 p.m. both days, and Saturday gives it six hours instead of four.
- St. Nicholas, late morning. With no liturgy on Saturday, you get full access to the main floor, the choir loft and the docents.
- Ukrainian National Museum on Superior Street. It's set up for self-guided viewing, with information at each station. Displaced scholars founded the museum in 1952 to keep a cultural record for people who had been forced to leave their homeland.
- Sts. Volodymyr & Olha, after noon. It's just south of St. Nicholas on Oakley, and its Saturday doors open at 12.
- UIMA before 4 p.m. Both galleries will be open with different exhibitions, and a docent will be there.
- St. Helen and Kenar Studio to finish. Both stay open until 5 p.m. St. Helen opens its main floor, with stations explaining its architectural features. Kenar Studio has two gallery levels of work by Jerzy S. Kenar.
A Sunday Built Around 1:30
Sunday reverses the order and centers on one time slot. At 1:30 p.m., St. Nicholas hosts a free Choir Glorious concert, "Music Through the Ages," conducted by Maestra Bohdana Chepil. The program includes Ukrainian sacred and secular works by Berezovsky, Bortniansky and Stetsenko, plus contemporary pieces, and the concert is dedicated to the memory of those fallen in the war in Ukraine. It ends at 2:30. Sts. Volodymyr & Olha opens two blocks away at the same minute, but it stays open until 5. You can attend the concert and still get to Oakley with plenty of time.
- 10 a.m. Ukrainian National Museum or St. Helen, which are the first two doors open in the neighborhood on Sunday.
- 11 a.m. Kenar Studio or UIMA, both open from 11.
- Noon Holy Trinity on Leavitt, as soon as it opens, since it closes at 4.
- About 1 p.m. St. Nicholas, once the last liturgy lets out, so you're seated for the 1:30 concert.
- 2:30 p.m. Sts. Volodymyr & Olha, catching one of the 10-minute talks.
- Before 4 p.m. Back to UIMA if you skipped it that morning.
The route has you walking along Division at some point, and the walk looks a little different this fall. In September, a group called the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance built benches painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag and put them at bus stops on Division Street between Oakley and Western and on Damen Avenue near Thomas Street. In the past few days, the city has installed sanctioned ad benches at both stops, Block Club reported on Oct. 5. Founder Sam Kovnar said the group plans to build three more for other stops that don't have benches.
What Stays on the Walls After the Weekend
Both museums on the route have shows that run before and after Open House. Since you'll be inside on the 17th or 18th anyway, it's worth knowing what each one is showing.
The Ukrainian National Museum opens an exhibition of Petrykivka painting by Halyna Nazarenko on Oct. 7. It includes floral compositions, fantastical birds, the Cossack Mamai figure and painted icons. The museum notes that the village of Petrykivka now sits about 80 kilometers from the front line. The opening event is Oct. 9 at 7 p.m., with a mini-lecture by Iryna Voloshyna, PhD. The show is up until Oct. 22, and the museum lists admission at $10. Open House entry is free, but ask at the door whether that covers this exhibition. If you'd like to try the technique, the museum is holding Petrykivka painting workshops Saturday, Oct. 10, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Friday, Oct. 16, from 4 to 7 p.m. Each costs $65.
UIMA's west gallery has "Ukraine: Voices from the Gray Zone" through Jan. 9, 2027. It's a timeline of photographs and video by Eric Bladholm, compiled over nine humanitarian aid trips to Ukraine between 2022 and 2026, and curated by Adrienne Kochman and Elena Smolynets. If the Sunday route leaves you short on time at Chicago Avenue, the show is still there on any Wednesday-through-Sunday afternoon this winter.
Holy Trinity also has more for anyone who wants more than the self-guided Open House visit. The parish offers regular tours led by trained docents, with sign-up through Eventbrite.
At Camille Canales Group, we'll be walking these same blocks on Oct. 17 and 18. If you're curious how Ukrainian Village's churches, museums and vintage brick buildings figure into what a home on these streets is worth, book a consultation with us or request a free home valuation.
