Durham-Perry Farmstead in Bourbonnais listed in National Register of Historic Places

            BOURBONNAIS - State officials today presented the owners of the Durham-Perry Farmstead in Bourbonnais with a certificate noting that the property has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service.

 

            "A National Register listing is an honor bestowed upon our most significant historic places," said Robert Coomer, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, which administers the National Register program in Illinois.  "The Durham-Perry Farmstead gives a glimpse into the early settlement of what is now Kankakee County, and shows us how agricultural practices developed here over more than a century."

 

Coomer, State Rep. Lisa Dugan and Bradley Mayor Gale Kent presented the National Register of Historic Places certificate to the Bourbonnais Township Park District at a brief ceremony today.  Seven other historically significant properties in Illinois were also listed in the National Register last month.

 

"It is truly a privilege to help present this honor to the Durham-Perry Farmstead," State Rep. Lisa Dugan (D-Kankakee) said.  "I would like to commend the Bourbonnais Township Park District and the surrounding communities for their diligence in maintaining these important structures.  Your commitment to historic preservation will allow future generations to enjoy and learn about our ancestors and the communities they helped to build."

 

The Durham-Perry Farmstead represents the changing agricultural practices and emphases in Kankakee County and Illinois through time, from the earliest years of settlement into the mid twentieth century.  Historic buildings on the property include a mid-century frame house, two barns, a garage, and a well house.  The house and barns were built using traditional timber-frame construction, a building method that played a significant role in the early settlement history of northeastern Illinois as well as the remainder of the state.  Many examples of this type of construction did not survive the great rebuilding that occurred on American farmsteads during the World War I era, or subsequent modernization efforts or urban expansion that have occurred since the middle of the twentieth century.  More often than not, where timber-frame buildings have survived, they do so in isolation.  The fact that the Durham-Perry Farmstead has three such structures adds to the significance of the property.