Dole Mansion Farmers Market from Illinois Agricultural Assoc. on Vimeo.
Not every farmers market in Illinois can claim its location includes a mansion built by a pioneering grain elevator owner. But a market in the northern Illinois community of Crystal Lake can.
“When Charles Dole owned this property, it was known as Lakeland Farms,” says Sharon LeCoque, volunteer at the nonprofit now known as The Dole, with its elegant – but longing for additional restoration – 19th-century mansion and several acres of lakeside property in McHenry County’s most populous city. “That is kind of a cool tie-in for us that we would be holding a farmers market on this property.”
LeCoque and her sister, Linda Wozniak, both longtime Crystal Lake residents, helped secure city approval and launch a new farmers market in two months’ time.
Started in June 2021, the farmers market helped breathe new life into The Dole, built by the Chicago grain merchant who, according to the Chicago Historical Society, established one of the first elevators in the nation’s third-largest city almost two centuries ago. A grain elevator dries, stores and ships crops grown by Illinois farmers such as soybeans, corn and wheat. Most grain and oilseed elevators today can be found in rural Illinois communities such as the one in the nearby unincorporated community of Ridgefield.
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Charles Dole bought the property about 50 miles northwest of Chicago in 1860 and completed the mansion in 1865, according to the organization’s website. With a major addition in the 20th century, it became the first Crystal Lake country club, then a seminary for a religious order, then a daycare center run by a local church. Community leaders and residents rallied early in the 21st century to preserve it when it was put up for sale.
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“This property is over 12 acres. It’s the perfect property to do something like this,” says LeCoque about adding a farmers market where visitors can purchase fresh fruits, vegetables and meats grown and raised by local farmers. “We’ve become not only arts park driven – currently we have artists in residence – it’s becoming a community center.”
In addition to shopping, customers have shown their support by voting The Dole Farmers Market “No. 1 in Illinois” as part of the American Farmland Trust’s 2021 American Farmers Market Celebration competition. It ranked third in the Midwest and 12th nationally.
Its outdoor season ends at the end of October, but an indoor season starts in early November and runs through the end of April.
Check out this episode of the Partners podcast to learn more.
