Geoffrey Baer presents to a sold-out crowd at the DuPage County Historical Museum

Posted December 11, 2024 6:29 pm

By Margie Wilhelmi, Wheaton Park District

There was standing-room only at the DuPage County Historical Museum on Nov. 7 when one of Chicago’s favorite TV producers presented “An Evening with Geoffrey Baer.”

Baer, the eight-time Emmy Award-winning host and producer of WTTW’s “Chicago By Boat,” “Chicago By L” and “Chicago From the Air” television tours, provided a walk through DuPage County architecture and history in a special one-hour presentation at the museum.

More than 100 people signed up to be part of an exclusive evening with Geoffrey Baer which included savory appetizers donated by Ivy Restaurant, drinks and an opportunity to tour the museum, and a live demonstration of the museum's HO scale model railroad from members of the DuPage Society of Model Engineers.

"An Evening with Geoffrey Baer" was generously sponsored by Ivy Restaurant and Troy Rodman with Coldwell Banker.

"Having Geoffery Baer present at the DuPage County Historical Museum was a real treat as Geoffery is a noted TV personality and icon in architecture/history within the tri-state Chicago area,“ said Troy Rodman, DuPage County Historical Museum Foundation board member. ”The historical building the Museum resides in along with the deep history DuPage county offers was a big drawing card for Geoffery to welcome our invite to speak in the Museum's auditorium.“

Geoffrey Baer, third from right, is joined by Wheaton Park District’s Kaitlin Lizik, second from left, and DuPage County Historical Museum Foundation board members Philip Buchanan, Troy Rodman, Melody Coleman, Marty Keller and Dawn DeSart. Courtesy of Kmiecik Imagery

The DuPage County Historical Museum, which operates as a facility of the Wheaton Park District, is housed in a stately Richardsonian Romanesque-style building that opened in 1891 as Adams Memorial Library. It is home to more than 40,000 artifacts and a photography archive of more than 10,000 images.

The museum hosts both permanent and rotating exhibits as well as a range of educational programs throughout the year and is dedicated to the collection, preservation, interpretation, and exhibition of materials which document the history of DuPage County.

The museum is free to the public and open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on weekends from noon to 4 p.m.

Details about future presentations, programming and exhibits, can be found at dupagemuseum.org.

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