By Hannah Swale ~ Kankakee County Museum
Before 111 East Court Street was constructed, the street looked something like this around the time after the Civil War had ended.
The new city of Kankakee (officially founded in 1853) was booming… railroads were flourishing, telephone wires were being installed, population was booming, hotels and opera houses and schools and churches were popping up left and right, many of them still around to this day.
A French-Canadian Immigrant named Fred Delonais, born about 1850, soon arrived in Kankakee. He married his wife Minnie Boisvert in 1876, and together, they built a life in the early years of our County. Fred built the Delonais Building (now 111 East Court Street, the space and home to this summer’s West Side Story) at the Turn of the Century, sometime around 1898.
The three-story building was clad in running bond brick, with a street front façade featuring a new port cochere with archways. The second and third stories displayed three windows with decorated pointed arch transoms. The top had a classical cornice. Amazingly, the Delonais Building has stood in three different centuries and still stands today to tell the stories of Kankakee’s vibrant past.
A Merchants’ Street Fair in 1899 looked like this…
The Delonais Building can be seen in the center background.
When Fred Delonais’ building was built, downtown Kankakee could boast a rush of modern life. New subdivisions and new industries were announced at every turn. The building at the far left in the above photo was Stamm’s Restaurant and Bakery. At some point in the building’s history, sometime during the 1940s, 111 East Court Street became the Santos Hotel and it was open until the 1970s. It was home to the Bamboo Chinese Restaurant for a time as well. It’s also been home to offices, musicians’ lesson spaces, and Arrow Signs.
What is so special about historic buildings is the different lives they are able to live… the many stories they get to tell… Think of the countless people who pass through their doors, who live and work and laugh and are there for a time, who leave but then make room for the next generations to create a new story.
111 East Court Street has an exhilarating new chapter this summer, as it gets to set the scene for the beloved musical West Side Story. I like to think it’s proud and honored to have been chosen for this task!
