Kankakee

Kankakee sits about sixty miles south of Chicago on the river of the same name, a town with deep French-Canadian fur-trading roots that later grew into a limestone-quarrying and manufacturing center. Most people driving I-57 blow right past it, which is a shame, because tucked into a quiet residential street is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s earliest Prairie School houses, built in 1900 for a local hardware merchant named B. Harley Bradley, predating the more famous Wright houses by several years.

The B. Harley Bradley House

We toured the Bradley House on a guided visit, and it was startling how fully formed Wright’s Prairie style already was — the long horizontal lines, the art glass windows, the open interior flow that would define his career for decades afterward, all present in a house most architecture books barely mention. Our guide, a local volunteer who clearly loved the building more than any professional tour guide could fake, pointed out details in the leaded glass that took Lia twenty minutes to photograph properly.

The Kankakee River and limestone bluffs

The Kankakee River cuts through limestone bluffs just south of downtown, and Kankakee River State Park preserves several miles of it as forested trails and rocky overlooks that feel far more remote than their proximity to Chicago suggests. We hiked along Rock Creek, a tributary that carves its own small canyon before joining the main river, and had the trail almost entirely to ourselves on a weekday afternoon, which is more than I can say for most parks that close to a major city.

Getting There

Kankakee is about seventy miles south of downtown Chicago and its O’Hare and Midway airports, roughly ninety minutes by car on I-57. A car is essential for reaching the Bradley House and Kankakee River State Park, both a short drive from downtown but not connected by any real transit.