Excalibur Nightclub

Chicago’s Nightlife Icon   ...The Largest in the Midwest.

By: Stephanie Ballesteros

One of the most haunted places in Chicago is also Chicago’s largest dance floor. Located in the heart of River North, Excalibur night club has been around since 1892 and has been named a historical landmark for its architectural beauty. The red granite building was designed by Henry Ives Cobb to house the Chicago Historical Society. Even though the building has been around for decades it wasn’t until 1989 that it became Excalibur, Chicago’s biggest nightclub. The entertainment at Excalibur exceeds your typical nightclub.

Excalibur is popular for its four floors of dancing, lounging, dinning, comedy shows, live entertainment, professional party planning and arcade games. But most of all Excalibur nightclub has been home to the largest salsa night for 17 years. Excalibur’s Operation director, William W. Mcfall III says,

“It’s extremely diverse, it’s an extremely popular night, without a doubt it’s the biggest Latin night in the city of Chicago.”

Excalibur has become the place to go to on Thursday nights, bringing Latin Street dancing from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

“Thursdays have been consistently great nights for a very long time. It’s a fun night and great night to get out and meet people, learn how to dance salsa, just mingle and have a great time.” 

And the party doesn’t end Thursday nights; Fridays are known for its “History of House” and every first Friday of the month Excalibur hosts a party with The V5 Group now in their 8^th year this party keeps getting better and bigger, they have had crowds of 2400 people gathering to enjoy the rhythms of salsa, merengue, hip-pop and everything across the border, definitely the biggest night in the club Industry. Saturdays are world renowned DJ’s night where they bring top DJ’s from around the world such as DJ Tiësto, Paul Van Dyk and Armin Van Buren. 

Mcfall adds, “What makes this club so unique is the mystic of the building itself and the fact that we are so diverse.” 

But the Romanesque Revival style of the heavy, rough-cut stone walls, round arches, and the gothic pair of large and imposing winged gargoyles at the entrance are not the scariest things about this building.  

When asked if it was true if Excalibur was haunted and if you could still see ghost around, Mcfall answered: 

“Oh yeah, they’re still there. They are definitely still here.” 

Rumor has it the building was used in the 1800’s as a morgue when the Eastland Disaster occurred. It is said that the Cook County morgue couldn’t hold all the bodies.

Mcfall says, “A lot of strange things have happened here.” 

It is also said that the previous owner of the building hung himself.

But at Excalibur you just won’t hear the spooky stories; you’ll get to experience them hands on through experiments in mind-reading, magic and other inexplicable phenomena. You will also hear the background story on the building and what Mcfall calls the buildings “historical ghost education.”

Supernatural Chicago is presented every Friday night at 7:30 pm. $25 per person includes two beverages, the hour-long show, and admission to Excalibur for the evening.

So, even though this 63 thousand square feet building may seem a bit spooky with its two winged gargoyles Mcfall says it is now far from spooky. 

“Used to be very spooky but we are used to it now and it’s actually more fun than spooky.”

So if you’re looking for a night full of dancing, games and history come to the largest nightclub in the city of Chicago and in the Midwest.  
 

Excalibur Nightclub

632 N. Dearborn ave

Chicago, IL. 60654

312-266-1944

www.excaliburchicago.com