Kankakee State Hospital Historic District

Kankakee State Hospital Historic District occupies the south bank of the Kankakee River in Kankakee, Illinois. Designed in 1878 as the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane, it grew from 251 acres to about 2,000, and 119 acres with the historic buildings are nominated. Its centerpiece is the Administration Center of 1879, a four-story limestone building with a seven-story tower, designed by Chicago architect James R. Willett on the Kirkbride plan. Nearby stand detached cottages, which the nomination describes as the first of their kind in the United States and which replaced the single-building model. H.W.S. Cleveland laid out winding roads, an oval lawn and tree groves. Yellow Joliet limestone unifies the early buildings, while later ones are mostly red brick with Classical details. Adolf Meyer practiced here in the 1890s, and the grounds record changing approaches to mental health care. The complex remains in use as a developmental center, with a museum in the tower.