Francis Park Woodland Palace - Kewanee, Illinois

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Francis Park Woodland Palace - Kewanee, Illinois

This is a home built way a head of it’s time, full of engineering wonders. The explanation of the man who built and lived in the home will keep you interested throughout the tour. 

Fred Francis was an artist, poet, inventor, builder, mathematician, engineer, and a nudist.Fred started to build the home in 1890, worked on it for the next 36 years. It features hand carved molding, not run on a mill or with a stamp process. This is the first house in the state to have air conditioning even before there was electricity. He dug an air chamber 350 feet long into timber on the southwest corner of the home. With disappearing windows and doors it seems everything in the home works in harmony. The solarium, a glass room, was built for his wife Jeanie when she got tuberculosis. After he committed suicide, he left the property and Woodland Palace to the city along with instructions on how to take care of it and how to work the many engineering marvels.

Admission is $2 a person, kids are $1.

Woodland Palace is open seven days a week from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. now through October 1.

Phone: 309-852-2611

Location: 401 E. Third St.