Located at 701 S. Harrison, Kankakee, the B. Harley Bradley House was designed in 1900 by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Throughout the course of his 91-year life, Wright executed 1,141 designs. Only 532 were ever completed. Two of those sit side-by-side in Kankakee. Throughout the years, the home has sheltered a wealthy young couple, a bird house business and Yesteryear Restaurant.
In recent years, there have been determined attempts to renovate and restore the home, capped by Gaines and Sharon Hall and the craftsman they employed, Tom Knickelbine.
Now, the nonprofit Wright in Kankakee has mounted a $1.7 million "Retire the Mortgage" campaign. The Halls sold the home they restored to the nonprofit at zero interest for 10 years. If the campaign can raise $350,000 in cash and pledges by June 2018, that will be matched by another donor.
Coincidental but supporting the campaign, filmmaker Tom Desch created a 56-minute documentary "An American Home,'' which discusses the house and its place in Kankakee and in architectural history.
Here, Desch answers questions from Phil Angelo. Both questions and answers edited for length and continuity.
How did you find the story of the Wright house?
It came out of the "Everglades of the North" film about the Great Kankakee Marsh. We were looking for supplemental material for the DVD — a travelogue — things to see along the Kankakee River.
I didn't know much about it. The more I researched it, the more I learned how important this house is to history.
It started at 30 minutes. It went to an hour. It just kept expanding.
A lot of the material included photos and newspaper clips from the Daily Journal.
Mike Frey, (Daily Journal editor at large) and the Journal staff were very, very helpful.
How much of the work is done with the camera and how much is behind the scenes, writing and researching and editing?
By far, what you really do is sit at the computer and edit — for hours on end.
Is there any part of the film that ended up on the cutting room floor?
There was an entire theme that emphasized the connections among Wright, the city of Kankakee and the Bradley family — how they were all linked to the prairie. Wright was from a farm in Wisconsin. Kankakee is the quintessential prairie town. And the Bradley family had the plow, which broke the prairie. You'll see it in the future on the "special features" section of the DVD.
Until I shot the film, I had no idea the plow was such a turning point in history
Do you have the money to complete the project (showing the film on PBS)?
Yes, we have just raised the final amount.
The story of B. Harley Bradley was a tragedy I didn't expect.
Researchers Laura Golowski and Elisabeth Dunbar found that. There was a business deal that flopped and he wound up committing suicide. His widow came back to the area and eked out a living running a tea shop. There's a letter, a heartbreaking letter, in the Wright archives explaining her last days. There's no reason to think that Wright ever responded.
It's a story of hardship and resurgence on her part.
There always are credits at the end, but you got a lot of help.
Justin Hayward was a wonderful director of photography. The core group also included associate producer Pat Wisniewski. Brian Prairie shot footage for us, including the overhead drones.
You got a lot of local people in front of the camera.
Norma Strasma, of Wright in Kankakee; Bill Yohnka for the city of Kankakee; Elisabeth Dunbar; Jack Klasey on camera and his great research; Gaines and Sharon Hall, without them there is no movie; Michael Costanza; Laura Golowski, the operations manager for Wright in Kankakee; architect Tom Knicklebine; former owner Bob LaBeau; and Tim Keown, for the bit about the Kankakee High School class re-purposing the gazebos.
Is there anyone you wanted to get — and didn't?
Tim Samuelson, the cultural historian for the city of Chicago. It wasn't that he was uncooperative; we just could not make connections.
Most residents would remember the building as a restaurant.
Yesteryear was not a big focus of the film. Luckily, Wright in Kankakee had had a Yesteryear reunion and we wound up talking to a former waitress.
Are Gaines and Sharon Hall the heroes of the story?
Yes, but they are not the only heroes. They are part of a line of heroes.
We wouldn't be here today if Stephen Small had not viewed the property as something to be saved.
You also have the Glenlloyd Associates. They did a good job with the main house and it was no longer a boarded-up property. Of course, it was the Halls who took it over and aimed to restore it to what it was. They saved the stable building when a lot of people thought it couldn't be done.
Wright in Kankakee is another hero. They have taken the baton from the Halls and moved out into the community.
Kankakee is a character in the film, too.
Yes, Kankakee has been through a lot. It's a film that says Kankakee is working hard and that we are striving for a better future. There are so many industrial towns that have been through what Kankakee has been through. The story is similar to Youngstown, Ohio, or Buffalo, just on a different scale.
What did you learn about Frank Lloyd Wright?
He was unquestionably a genius. I had no idea how prolific he was. He just kept working, producing more and more as he aged. He was productive in his 80s and 90s. Here we are — lucky to make one film per year.
Wright probably is the only architect most Americans have ever heard of. Why should they care about this house and his design for it?
Hopefully, the film answers that. This house is one of the things that makes this area special.
It marked a turning point in how people lived. The open floor plan, the informality, it begins with Frank Lloyd Wright. Loft apartments and the ranch houses that blend in to the land are the logical grandchildren of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie style.
Buildings like this have a sense of place and rootedness. They are works of art, not just another strip mall or tract house. Of course, art is expensive and that's why the house was built for a banker's daughter and a plow baron's grandson.