Celebrating 20 Years as Barrington’s Signature Magazine
Celebrating 20 Years as Barrington’s Signature Magazine
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Saturday, February 7, 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
$150 Per Person (Includes continental breakfast, lunch, & reception)
$45 Virtual | Tickets on Sale December 1
Celebrate America’s 250th and explore our cultural foundations at the ninth annual Barrington Town Warming, a community tradition featuring leading voices from across the nation. This year, we welcome keynote speaker Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., acclaimed historian and host of PBS’s Finding Your Roots; Tom Wickham, former Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives; and scholars from some of America’s top universities.
Keynote Sponsors: Kim Duchossois and Jessica & Dominic Green. Presenting Sponsor: Northern Trust
Sunday, March 1, 3:00 p.m. | $45 Per Person
Celebrate the brilliance of Beethoven and Brahms with Barrington’s own Marta and Ani Aznavoorian, joined by violinist Desirée Ruhstrat. These acclaimed musicians, praised for their artistry worldwide, bring timeless masterworks to life in an afternoon of expressive chamber music. A champagne reception with the artists follows this performance.
Sponsored by Pam and Dave Conroy
Wednesday, February 11, 6:00 p.m.
$50 Per Person
Hosted by the Barrington Health & Wellness Summit, this pre-summit event brings together local experts in functional, integrative, and conventional medicine to discuss women’s health in midlife and beyond. Topics include menopause, hormone therapy, and weight management.
Thursday, February 26, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
$150 Per Person (Includes lunch & morning/afternoon snacks)
The Barrington Health & Wellness Summit gathers leading experts from all over the country to explore a variety of topics including cancer prevention, mental health, pediatric health, culinary medicine, microbiome, integrative medicine, brain health, women’s health, antibiotics, disease prevention, and more. This event is the vision of local physicians and community members alike. All are invited to join us as we foster health and wellness in our community.
by L I S A S T A M O S
photo by Linda M. Barrett Photography
The name “Town Warming” has been a curiosity to me since the event was reprised in 2018 by Karen Darch, Barrington’s Village President (2005-2025) and the Barrington Cultural Commission which she created to guide and produce such offerings. Town Warming is likely a scaled-up version of “housewarming,” a term used in Colonial America then popularized in the 1930s and 1940s in media.
In this era, World War I was a lingering memory. By 1939, the worst years of the Great Depression has passed. And the United States entered World War II in 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor. These decades were filled with tense times in America and the world.
In 1938, two Barrington businessmen spoke of the troubled times in which they were living. Their vision was to have a “revival of the spirit, to lift people out of themselves and help make them gladder to be living in America than they ever had been before.” Within two weeks, this conversation grew into a unique community undertaking with civic-minded speeches, music, song, and hospitality, held in January 1939.
However, the world was unstable, and political language felt dangerous. Americans were divided over geo-political ideologies. So, they often chose warm, domestic metaphors to keep civic life intact. A town warming was a way of saying, “We’re still here. We still belong to one another.” Town Warming sounded non-partisan, framed the discussions as communal, not ideological, and reduced the risk of backlash. And it worked. Nearly all of Barrington endorsed this event including churches, the Board of Education, the Village Board, Lions Club, Jewel, service groups, and clubs.
Denis Conan Doyle, the son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was a presenter. He shared this about the event. “I should like to tell you that Barrington, its background, community, and people, impressed me greatly. The desire for knowledge and information, the atmosphere of mental and intellectual stimulation allied to exceedingly efficient organization, and the breadth of view and variety of interests that are represented by the Barrington Town Warming … it should be a model for every community in the United States.”
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