{"nrhp_refnum":"79000848","name":"Oaklawn Farm","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Army Trail and Dunham Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wayne","county":"Kane County","state":"IL","lat":41.94957775350005,"lon":-88.26762797888846,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-07-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district at the intersection of Army Trail and Dunham roads in Wayne, Kane County, Illinois, about 35 miles west of Chicago. It holds eleven surviving structures from a large 19th-century horse-breeding farm, including the 1836 Solomon Dunham House and the 1880-83 Dunham Castle.","why_significant":"Oaklawn Farm was one of the largest American establishments for importing and breeding Percheron draft horses in the last third of the 19th century. Under Mark Dunham, it helped advance agriculture on the western prairies. The district also preserves barns and outbuildings, and the grand chateau-inspired Dunham Castle.","narrative":"Oaklawn Farm Historic District occupies the four corners of Army Trail and Dunham roads in Wayne, in eastern Kane County. It preserves eleven structures from a farm that once covered more than 1,700 acres and specialized in importing and breeding Percheron draft horses. Mark Dunham, who took over his father's 300-acre homestead in the 1860s, built the operation into one of the largest of its kind, importing well over 2,000 horses from France by 1888. The surviving buildings include a long horse barn dating before 1884, other barns and outbuildings, the brick Solomon Dunham House of 1836, and a frame cottage from about 1875-80. Overlooking them is Dunham Castle, built in 1880-83 of pressed brick with towers and ornate detailing, which blends several late-19th-century styles. Farm operations ended in 1929, and since 1935 the Dunham Woods Riding Club has used much of the farm complex, keeping its barns in service.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 (the form also marks 1900-1929 on one version)","architect_builder":"Dunham Castle designed by Mark W. Dunham, construction supervised by Smith Hoag of Elgin","architectural_style":"Dunham Castle described as mixed Parvenu and proto-Chateauesque; Solomon Dunham House in simplified Greek Revival; Italianate details on the horse barn","criteria":[],"status_note":"Farm operations were suspended in 1929. Since 1935 the southeast corner has been the Dunham Woods Riding Club, and Dunham Castle has been converted into four apartments with few exterior changes.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.54142-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/98/8930/28893098/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/79000848.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000848/e15161e09f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000848/e15161e09f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Otherbeach (talk)BJS","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DunhamCastle.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Otherbeach (talk)BJS</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DunhamCastle.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893098","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaklawn_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7074093"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kane-county/oaklawn-farm-79000848/"}