Explore the real-world places that appear in Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include The Abandoned Funhouse, Riverview Park Site, Sarah Greene's House, City Escape Rooms, The Chicago Public Library — Harold Washington Branch and 9 more.
Near Wabash Ave corridor — the novel's central mystery location
The old Stein Brothers funhouse is the heart of the novel. Sarah, West, and Hannah break in hoping to find the legendary treasure rumored to be hidden inside its walls. Once inside, they discover the funhouse is unlike any escape room they have ever attempted — its mirror mazes, trapdoors, secret passages, and elaborate riddles feel eerily personal, as though the Stein triplets knew exactly who would one day enter. Sarah pushes forward despite her fear because finding the treasure is the only way she can think of to save her family's home from foreclosure.
Chicago had a rich tradition of amusement parks and funhouses in the early 20th century, including attractions at Riverview Park, which operated from 1904 to 1967 on the North Side. Funhouses featuring mirror mazes, optical illusions, and mechanical tricks were enormously popular entertainment for working-class families in the postwar 1950s era.
While no single abandoned 1950s funhouse matches this description exactly, Chicago's North Side retains several derelict amusement-era structures and warehouses from the Riverview Park era, many of which are the subject of urban exploration and historical preservation debates.
W Belmont Ave & N Western Ave — Chicago's legendary lost amusement park
The spirit of the Stein Brothers' funhouse draws directly from the golden era of Chicago amusement parks. Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein are said to have dreamed of building something more elaborate and personal than any existing attraction — a funhouse that would outlast them and contain the story of their lives as orphaned triplets who reunited as adults to create something extraordinary together.
Riverview Park was one of America's largest and most famous amusement parks, operating on the North Side of Chicago from 1904 to 1967. It featured roller coasters, funhouses, mirror mazes, and dozens of attractions. Its closure and demolition devastated generations of Chicagoans and left a lasting mark on the city's cultural memory.
The former Riverview site is now occupied by a retail shopping center, an Aldi distribution center, and the Chicago Police Department's 19th District headquarters. Historical markers and local memory projects commemorate the park's legacy.
Visit: Riverview Plaza (Historic Riverview Park Site) (historic site)
Chicago residential neighborhood — where the foreclosure notice arrives
It is at her family home that Sarah's world turns upside down when a foreclosure notice appears on the front door. Her father has been ill for two years, and the financial strain has quietly mounted until this moment makes it undeniable and urgent. This is where Sarah makes the decision to pursue the Stein funhouse treasure — not for adventure, but out of desperation to protect her family. The house represents everything at stake for her throughout the novel.
Chicago's bungalow belt neighborhoods, developed heavily in the 1920s through 1950s, provided affordable single-family housing for working-class families across the North and West Sides. Economic hardship and foreclosure crises have repeatedly threatened these communities, most acutely during the Great Depression and again after 2008.
Chicago's residential bungalow neighborhoods remain largely intact, though many families continue to face economic pressures, foreclosure risks, and rising property taxes. Organizations like Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago work to help families retain their homes.
Downtown Chicago — where Sarah, West, and Hannah hone their puzzle skills
Before the events of the novel, Sarah's greatest ambition is to beat every escape room in town with her best friends West and Hannah. Their shared passion for codes, riddles, and logic puzzles is what makes them uniquely equipped to tackle the Stein funhouse — they have been training, unknowingly, for exactly this challenge. Sarah's competitive drive and expertise in escape rooms is established here as the foundation of her character.
The escape room industry exploded in American cities in the 2010s, with Chicago becoming one of the country's top markets for the experience. The concept draws on puzzle-box traditions, video game logic, and live-action role-play to create immersive challenge environments.
Chicago boasts dozens of escape room venues throughout the city, including long-running businesses in the Loop, River North, and Lincoln Park neighborhoods. The industry remains popular with families, tourists, and corporate groups seeking team-building experiences.
Visit: Escape Artistry Chicago (landmark)
400 S State St — research hub for the Stein Brothers' history
To understand the riddles inside the funhouse and uncover the legend of Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein, Sarah and her friends must dig into history. A library setting — rich with old newspaper archives, local history collections, and microfilm — represents the kind of research Sarah undertakes to piece together who the Stein orphan triplets were, how they reunited, and why they hid a treasure inside the walls of their creation.
The Harold Washington Library Center, named after Chicago's first Black mayor, opened in 1991 and is the main branch of the Chicago Public Library system. It houses one of the country's largest municipal library collections, including extensive Chicago history and genealogy resources.
The Harold Washington Library Center remains fully operational and is one of Chicago's most visited public buildings. Its Winter Garden rooftop atrium, vast research collections, and free public programming make it a beloved civic institution.
Visit: Harold Washington Library Center (library)
Chicago neighborhood — where Hannah first reveals the funhouse legend
It is Hannah who first tells Sarah and West about the treasure rumored to be hidden inside the abandoned Stein funhouse. This conversation is the inciting event that pivots the novel from a story about a girl facing financial ruin to an action-packed treasure hunt. Hannah's knowledge of the local legend makes her the catalyst for the entire adventure, and her home becomes the planning ground where the three friends decide to attempt the funhouse.
Chicago's diverse residential neighborhoods have long served as gathering points for immigrant and working-class communities who passed down oral histories, local legends, and neighborhood folklore across generations. Stories of hidden wealth and eccentric builders have circulated in many Chicago communities.
Chicago's North and Northwest Side neighborhoods remain vibrant, densely populated residential areas where community storytelling and neighborhood identity remain strong.
Chicago neighborhood — home base for the trio's planning sessions
West is one of Sarah's two best friends and her partner in the town's escape room circuit. His home serves as a gathering point for the group as they plan their approach to the Stein funhouse. West's enthusiasm for puzzles and codes matches Sarah's, and together with Hannah the three form a team whose complementary skills allow them to survive the funhouse's increasingly dangerous and personal challenges.
Chicago's bungalow neighborhoods were designed around the concept of community — blocks of similar homes occupied by families who knew their neighbors and watched out for one another. The tight social fabric of these communities has always supported the kind of close friendships depicted in middle-grade novels set in the city.
Chicago's residential neighborhoods continue to serve as the backbone of the city's social life, with block clubs, neighborhood associations, and local schools keeping community bonds strong despite ongoing urban pressures.
Inside the Stein Funhouse — first major challenge
The mirror maze is one of the first elaborate challenges Sarah, West, and Hannah encounter inside the Stein funhouse. Rows of angled mirrors create disorienting reflections that hide the real path forward and conceal a riddle written on one of the panels. Sarah realizes the maze is not just an optical trick but a puzzle requiring logic rather than vision — the first sign that the funhouse was designed by minds that understood how people think and how to confound them.
Mirror mazes were a staple of American funhouses and amusement parks from the late 19th century onward. Chicago's Riverview Park featured several mirror and fun-mirror attractions that drew massive crowds. The technology relied on carefully angled plate glass and strategic lighting to multiply reflections and disorient visitors.
Mirror mazes have experienced a revival in modern immersive entertainment venues and escape rooms across the country. Several permanent mirror maze attractions operate in major American cities, including in Chicago's museum and entertainment complex areas.
Inside the Stein Funhouse — hidden passage network
Deeper inside the funhouse, the trio discovers a network of trapdoors and secret passages that connect rooms in unexpected ways. One wrong step sends them plunging into a lower chamber, forcing them to solve a coded message on the wall to find their way back. The personal nature of the challenges becomes undeniable here — the riddles reference specific experiences of orphaned children, as though the Stein brothers encoded their own childhoods into the walls of the house.
Secret passages and hidden rooms were popular features in both Victorian-era mystery houses and mid-20th-century funhouses. Builders like Winchester Mystery House in California inspired many imitators, and Chicago had its own tradition of elaborate private architecture with hidden spaces, most infamously H.H. Holmes's murder castle from the 1890s.
Hidden passages and trapdoor mechanics have become signature elements of high-end escape room design. Chicago's escape room industry incorporates these physical features in venues across the city, keeping the tradition of the funhouse alive in modern form.
Chicago — where Hans, Stefan, and Karl were separated as children
According to the legend uncovered by Sarah and her friends, Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein were orphaned at age eight and sent to live with different families, separated from each other for years. The pain of that separation drove their lifelong dream of reunion and their obsessive project of building a funhouse together as adults — a structure that would hold their shared history and their treasure. Understanding the triplets' backstory becomes essential to decoding the funhouse's most personal riddles.
Chicago had a robust network of orphanages and child welfare institutions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the Chicago Orphan Asylum and the St. Joseph Orphanage. The city's industrial growth attracted immigrants whose children sometimes ended up in these institutions after family tragedy.
Most of Chicago's historic orphanage buildings have been demolished, converted to housing, or repurposed as schools and community centers. The history of child welfare institutions in Chicago is documented at the Newberry Library and the Chicago History Museum.
1601 N Clark St, Lincoln Park — repository of Chicago's hidden stories
The deep history embedded in the Stein funhouse — its 1950s construction, its connection to orphan brothers who built something lasting out of loss — reflects the kind of Chicago story preserved in institutions like this one. Sarah's detective work into the Stein brothers' past mirrors the kind of historical excavation that reveals how the city's most personal and eccentric stories are often hidden just beneath the surface of the ordinary.
The Chicago History Museum, founded in 1856 as the Chicago Historical Society, is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the Midwest. Its collections document Chicago history from Native American settlements through the Great Fire, the World's Fairs, and the postwar era. It houses artifacts, photographs, and documents from the full sweep of Chicago life.
The Chicago History Museum remains one of the city's most visited cultural institutions, with permanent galleries on Chicago history, a celebrated costume collection, and rotating special exhibitions. It sits at the southern edge of Lincoln Park and is open to the public year-round.
Visit: Chicago History Museum (museum)
Inside the Stein Funhouse — room of cryptographic riddles
One of the funhouse's most demanding rooms confronts Sarah, West, and Hannah with walls covered in ciphers and coded messages left by the Stein brothers. Using their escape room experience and collective knowledge of logic puzzles, the trio works to decode messages that reveal not only the path forward but fragments of the triplets' story — their separation, their years apart, and their eventual reunion. Sarah's skill with patterns and numbers proves essential here.
Codes and ciphers have fascinated puzzle designers since at least the Victorian era, when cipher-based games appeared in newspapers and parlor entertainment. The 1950s — the era of the Stein funhouse — coincided with the height of Cold War cryptography culture, which filtered into popular entertainment and amateur puzzle design.
Cipher rooms and cryptographic challenges are among the most popular elements in modern escape room design. Chicago's escape room venues frequently feature code-breaking puzzles that echo the tradition the Stein brothers represent in the novel.
Deepest chamber of the Stein Funhouse — the goal of Sarah's quest
The treasure vault is the ultimate destination Sarah has been racing toward — the prize hidden by the Stein brothers inside the walls of their funhouse. When Sarah finally reaches it, the discovery is not simply about money or saving her house. The vault and what it contains reveal the full emotional weight of the Stein brothers' story — orphaned children who built something enduring out of love for each other — and force Sarah to reckon with what family, persistence, and hope really mean.
The romantic tradition of hidden treasure inside walls or beneath floorboards has deep roots in American folklore and has inspired countless real searches, from prohibition-era hidden caches to Depression-era buried savings. Chicago's old buildings have on occasion yielded genuine hidden items during renovation work.
The idea of hidden treasure inside Chicago's old building stock continues to capture imaginations. Renovation projects in the city's historic neighborhoods periodically uncover artifacts, cash, and personal items sealed within walls during the 20th century.
600 E Grand Ave — Chicago landmark echoing the city's amusement heritage
Navy Pier represents the living spirit of Chicago's amusement and entertainment culture that forms the backdrop of the novel. The Stein brothers' dream of building the most epic funhouse in existence belongs to the same Chicago tradition of spectacular public entertainment — from the 1893 World's Fair Ferris wheel to Riverview Park to Navy Pier's modern carousel and rides. It anchors the novel's world in a city that has always believed in the power of wonder.
Navy Pier opened in 1916 as a municipal wharf and gradually evolved into an entertainment destination. It served as a naval training facility during World War II, housed the University of Illinois Chicago campus in the 1960s, and was redeveloped as a public attraction in 1995 with a Ferris wheel, carousel, theaters, and public gardens.
Navy Pier is Chicago's most visited attraction, drawing nearly nine million visitors annually. It features the Centennial Wheel, the Chicago Children's Museum, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, restaurants, seasonal festivals, and free public lakefront access.
Visit: Navy Pier (landmark)
More by Lindsay Currie: All Lindsay Currie books
More novels set in Chicago: Browse all Chicago books on Map A Story
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