Certified Illinois Expert
@mrillinois
Certified Illinois Expert. 🧡 libraries, buildings, nature, history. Giving Illinois travel/history lectures at a library near you! See schedule at johnkokoris.com or request that your library book me!
Russell’s Bar B Q on Thatcher Ave in Elmwood Park since 1930
One of chicago’s many futuristic steampunk fairy tale vistas
Shockingly I have completed and sent out the fifth edition of my email newsletter. Subscribe at the link in my bio, I assure you I will not spam you as it takes me months to put one of these together!
Northern/NW Illinoisans!! If you can help me spread the word, I am trekking out to Freeport & Warren this week to give talks, getting a hotel room, bringing the family along—would love to have a decent crowd. The talk is a fun one, part history, part travel. I don't shy away from controversy either!
WARNING: Attendance at my library lectures can result in mind expansion, enlightenment, even levitation. Do not miss an unprecedented week of library lectures, including very rare non-Chicagoland events in Freeport & Warren. Please come/spread the word! 🙏
This 1868 stunner in Plainfield was built as a Unitarian church and has housed a Catholic parish, an Italian restaurant, and a salon since then.
There is an online option to my Route 66 lecture tmrw (link below). You can attend at beautiful Elmhurst Public Library or stream while you enjoy a sumptuous dinner at your home. Here are some Route 66 pics of mine that did not make it into my packed slideshow.
Elmhurst! Beautiful glorious scenic Elmhurst! Come see it. I’m giving my Route 66 talk at the library tmrw at 7 and need YOU.
Abraham Lincoln, the Head of State, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Grant Park. This is the same world famous sculptor who created the standing Lincoln in Lincoln Park.
Picturing 348 people standing up packed like sardines to see a Mr. Illinois travel talk. #goals
I’ll be cruisin up to Schiller Park tonight at 6 to present on Route 66 at the library there. See ya there! (Picture I took in Normal… of someone else’s car)
This scene from the Elgin Armory feels like a metaphor for something
Elgin Armory. God every single block in Elgin is so beautiful and quirky.
The old Elgin National Watch Company Observatory was used to calculate scientifically accurate time. For decades since then it’s been a planetarium for Elgin’s impressive u-46 school district
I’ve posted it before and I’ll post it again. A great building in Elgin
Last night, despite blistering heat and buckling roads, 98 brave & noble citizens of Mt. Prospect attended my lecture at their beautiful library, setting a new attendance record. Tonight I’ll be at Elgin’s library for a rare talk on Illinois during the Revolutionary War
The newish library in Lake Zurich, a vast and comfortable building, has an eclectic mix of styles but the stone siding and trim color mesh well with many of the downtown buildings IMO. Can always add some ridiculous chalet style gable trim later.
Many buildings in Lake Zurich have a charming faux “Alpine”/cottage look that ties the downtown together nicely
Oh wow thanks for this. Good intel. Well, maybe a data center instead of housing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that’s great. I also learned that the track is in Stickney! 😬 error in my original post. Didn’t know about this little carve-out right where the track is
Evening in Lake Zurich after another unforgettable library lecture #illinoislife