Michelle Obama was born and raised in Chicago. Visit 10 sites that have shaped her life, career and marriage to President Barack Obama.
Provident Hospital of Cook County (500 E. 51st St., Chicago)
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born here on Jan. 17, 1964. She is the third first lady to be born in Chicago after Betty Ford (1918) and Hillary Clinton (1947), according to the National First Ladies’ Library.
South Shore: Childhood home (7436 S. Euclid Ave.)
She and older brother, Craig, grew up in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with no air conditioning. Their father, Fraser, was a pump operator for the Chicago water department who wasn’t slowed down by his multiple sclerosis. Their mother, Marian, had been a secretary at the University of Chicago. Of her upbringing, Obama said in a 2009 commencement address — her first — at the University of California at Merced: “My father was a blue-collar worker, as you all know. My mother stayed at home to raise me and my brother. We were the first to graduate from college in our immediate family.”
Bryn Mawr: Elementary school (Now Bouchet International School, 7355 S. Jeffery Blvd.)
The bright future first lady skipped second grade and was the salutatorian of her eighth-grade class. In a 2004 interview, Marian Robinson said her daughter has always been levelheaded, “I always say Michelle raised herself from about 9 years old,” she said. “She had her head on straight very early.”
Whitney Young High school (211 S. Laflin St.)
As a student at the city’s first magnet high school, Michelle Robinson took Advanced Placement classes, was invited to join the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer
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.Sidley Austin law firm (now at 1 S. Dearborn St.)
After graduating from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Robinson returned to Chicago to work for the law firm Sidley Austin, which was then located in Chase Tower. In summer 1989, she was assigned to mentor a Harvard Law student named Barack Obama. She rebuffed as inappropriate his initial attempts to ask her out on a date, but eventually he got her to go with him to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop near his apartment.
Trinity United Church of Christ (now located at 400 W. 95th St.)
Barack and Michelle Obama were married here on Oct. 3, 1992. The church’s former controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, officiated at their wedding. The Obamas left the congregation in 2008.
South Shore Cultural Center (7059 S. South Shore Drive)
The Obamas held their wedding reception here.
Former family condo in East Hyde Park (5450 S. East View Park)
From 1993 to 2005, the Obamas owned and lived in this first-floor unit in the East View Park condominium community near 54th Street and Hyde Park Boulevard.
University of Chicago (5841 S. Maryland Ave.)
In 1996, she was named associate dean of student services at the university where she developed its first community service program. In 2002, she joined The University of Chicago Medicine as executive director for community affairs, where she worked to build neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment and staff diversity. She was named vice president for community and external affairs in 2005, a position she was employed in full time until her husband’s presidential campaign required her involvement in 2007. She left the university shortly before moving to the White House in 2009.
Kenwood home (5046 S. Greenwood Ave.)
The Obamas moved to this home in 2005 and kept it as their base after Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate. Michelle explained the decision in an interview that same year: “We made a good decision to stay in Chicago, to remain based in Chicago, so that has kept our family stable. There has been very little transition for me and the girls. Now he’s commuting a lot, but he’s the grownup. He’s the senator. He can handle it. That’s really helped in keeping us grounded.”
Sources: Tribune archives, Cook County clerk, National First Ladies’ Library
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