Exhibit celebrates DuPage architecture
Architecture is representative of DuPage County's culture in many ways - it symbolizes the lives of the people and the art of each era.
The latest exhibit at the DuPage County Historical Museum, DuPage Architects, will offer a glimpse into the reasoning behind some of the iconic public and private structures in the county when it opens later this month.
DuPage Architects explores the lives and designs of five architects who designed buildings here: Ephram Norman Brydges, Walter Burley Griffin, Jarvis Hunt, Charles Sumner Frost and R. Harold Zook.
These architects are responsible for many famous buildings, including the Adams Memorial Library in Wheaton (Frost), Wheaton Grand Theatre (Brydges), Chicago Golf Clubhouse in Wheaton (Hunt), the William Emery House in Elmhurst (Griffin) and the R. Harold Zook Home and Studio in Hinsdale (Zook).
It will deliver insight into the men behind the buildings and why their legacy and the structures they built are important in understanding the history of DuPage.
The exhibit will showcase photographs and objects related to the designs of R. Harold Zook from the Hinsdale Historical Society, which moved the Zook Home and Studio in 2005 to save it from demolition. Cotswold-style cottages with roofs that imitated the appearance of English thatch roofs were Zook's signature design.
The exhibit also features recent interior and exterior photos of Wheaton's Seven Gables Farm House (later known as the Loretto Convent) taken by museum volunteer Larry Kmiecik.
Jarvis Hunt, an architect and well-rounded golfer, designed the structure as a part of the Chicago Golf Club Colony. Bob and Katy Goldsborough saved the house from demolition by moving it in August of 2017.
In addition, DuPage Architects will explore the stories of Charles Sumner Frost's popular Chicago buildings: the Potter Palmer Mansion (located in the Gold Coast neighborhood before its demolition), the Maine Pavilion of the 1893 World's Fair and Navy Pier.
These buildings embodied the Beaux Arts Movement, a style that was popular from the 1890s to 1910s that emphasized grandeur and elegance.
To tie along with the exhibit, the museum will be hosting a two-mile architectural walking tour to explore the buildings of Frost, Zook, Brydges and more. The tour will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at the museum front steps, 102 E. Wesley St., Wheaton. Admission is $6 per adult and $4 per child.
DuPage Architects will be on exhibit from Aug. 11 until next February.
For details or to register for the architectural tour, visit dupagemuseum.org or call (630) 510-4941.