This year, the group’s annual list of endangered structures sounds the alarm on not just buildings, but also public art. 

Two new shows at the Chicago Cultural Center open doors to a local arts movement from 50 years ago.

Geoffrey Baer explores why hot dogs and ketchup don’t mix in Chicago.

Editors from Trains Magazine tell us why Chicago is America's railroad capital.

A stunning confession in the most notorious civil rights case of the 20th century.

The walls of a South Side armory tell the history of warriors throughout the ages. Geoffrey Baer shares that story and more in this week’s Ask Geoffrey.

Last fall, 21st century technology was used to tell the story of a 20th century tragedy: the Eastland Disaster. The team behind that project is set to launch a second installment of its augmented reality app. Learn more.

A Chicago institution is closing up shop after 88 years. Visitors have been flocking to the Swedish Bakery in Andersonville to say – and eat – their goodbyes. 

Geoffrey Baer investigates why the Loop’s streets honoring presidents don’t honor the order of their terms, returns to a North Side bridge to nowhere, and relates the sad story of the “radium girls” of Ottawa, Illinois.

Navigating the Norwood Park neighborhood can be gnarly. Geoffrey Baer is here with all the twists and turns in this Northwest Side enclave’s history in this week’s edition of Ask Geoffrey.

A viewer wonders what became of a Chicago burger chain that borrowed its name from a cartoon moocher. Geoffrey Baer serves up some hamburger history.

One hundred years ago he took unforgettable photos of Chicago in turbulent times. Exploring the life of Jun Fujita, a Japanese immigrant who captured city history.

Underway at the Museum of Science and Industry is the longest-running exhibition of African-American art in the country. Learn more about the museum’s program and the origins of Black History Month.

Geoffrey Baer solves the mystery of a viewer’s “vague memory” from the 1940s, revisits an exhibit at the Century of Progress and opens the door to the Evanston History Center.

In the 1940s, a theater in the Loop was providing nightly news updates, and a professional cyclist was cleaning up with his Chicago chain of dry cleaning stores. Geoffrey Baer raises the curtain on these local history stories in this encore edition of Ask Geoffrey.

For Chicago’s municipal workers, the Christmas of 1904 was shaping up to be a sorry one indeed. The city was so broke it couldn’t pay municipal employees. But three days before Christmas, Santa Claus himself emerged from City Hall to save the workers’ Christmas. Well – kind of.