{"nrhp_refnum":"79000849","name":"Milk, Lemuel, Carriage House","other_names":["Lemuel Milk Barn","Stone Barn","Stone Barn Bakery"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"165 N. Indiana Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kankakee","county":"Kankakee County","state":"IL","lat":41.12125937600007,"lon":-87.86150769399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-06-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce","Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story limestone barn, also used as a carriage house, at 165 North Indiana Avenue in downtown Kankakee, Illinois. It was built between 1861 and 1868 for Lemuel Milk and remains on its original site.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the barn is significant for its association with Lemuel Milk, a farmer, land drainer, cattle and horse breeder and businessman. It is also one of the oldest Italianate buildings in the downtown business district, and it is the only surviving fragment of the Milk homestead.","narrative":"Built between 1861 and 1868, this two-story limestone barn at 165 North Indiana Avenue in Kankakee served as the carriage house for Lemuel Milk's 17-room mansion, which no longer exists. It housed the family cow, a matched team of black horses, feed and a carriage, and is reported to have sheltered ice wagons for Milk's Waldron Ice Company. Milk came from New York around 1855, drained wet prairie land, bred purebred cattle and horses, and ran a department store in Chebanse. The barn has a wide bracketed cornice, mostly original windows and a cupola rebuilt in 1973. Over time it served as a livery stable, car painting garage, sign shop, hardware warehouse and, briefly, a bakery and restaurant. It is now a meeting hall. It is valued as an early Italianate building in a downtown where few comparable structures remain, and as the last piece of the Milk estate.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good condition on its original site; currently used as a meeting place for the Junior Service League and for rental by other groups.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.587327-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/8932/28893234/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/79000849.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000849/fa1e76816d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79000849/fa1e76816d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lemuel_Milk_Carriage_House.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08</a>, <a href=\"https://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:Lemuel_Milk_Carriage_House.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893234","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuel_Milk_Carriage_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16894079"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/kankakee-county/milk-lemuel-carriage-house-79000849/"}