“Hard Roads Day” at the Fair

Kankakee insurance man Albert Schneider and his family enjoy a drive in the country, probably about 1915. They are riding on an “improved” road covered with compacted gravel; concrete paving in rural areas was still a few years in the future. Albert and his wife Berta are in the back seat; son Will is behind the steering wheel and son Walter is next to him. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive)

By Jack Klasey

September 6, 2025

On September 10, 1924, the Kankakee Daily Republican displayed the headline “Illinois Hard Roads Day Draws an Immense Crowd at Kankakee Inter-State Fair.”

What were “hard roads,” and why did they attract an “immense crowd” to the state’s second largest fair? (Attendance at the Inter-State Fair was exceeded only by the Illinois State Fair in Springfield.)

In the early 1920s, “hard roads” —highways paved with concrete—were relatively rare: Illinois had only about 1,200 miles of such roads. The remainder of the state’s highways and byways were unpaved dirt, or (at best) compacted gravel. Depending upon the season, such roads were muddy, dusty, or frozen. By contrast, the concrete-paved roads provided a good driving surface under most weather conditions.

A major goal of holding a “Hard Roads Day” at the big fair was to build support for a $100 million roadbuilding bond issue that would be presented to Illinois voters in the November 1924 general election. It was also a means of promoting the re-election of Governor Len Small (a Kankakee native who also happened to be the long time secretary of the Inter-State Fair.)

“If Governor Len Small had any doubts about the hundred million dollar road bond issue,” observed the Daily Republican on September 10, “they were all removed yesterday when thousands of people from all over the state of Illinois gathered here for the Kankakee Inter-State Fair’s celebration of “Illinois Hard Roads Day.”

“It was one of the biggest Tuesday crowds in years. The big new grandstand was packed to its utmost capacity and standing room was at a premium. Estimates on the number of automobiles ran as high as four thousand, not including those parked on private grounds outside. Practically every road leading into Kankakee was jammed with traffic during the morning yesterday.”

Demand for improved roads blossomed after World War I ended in 1918, as more and more Illinois residents became automobile owners. Then-Governor Frank Lowden urged voters to approve a $60 million bond issue to build paved highways that would “pull Illinois out of the mud.” By the time Lowden was succeeded as Governor by Len Small in 1921, approximately 1,200 miles of “hard roads” had been built.

Small, who promoted himself strongly as “The Good Roads Governor,” would lay down more than 4,000 miles of concrete pavement during his first term (1921-1924). When he left office in 1929, at the end of his second term, Illinois had more than 7,000 miles of paved roads.

In a November 1923, speech at Nashville, Illinois, Small outlined his roadbuilding strategy. “The Illinois roadbuilding program is no longer an experiment,” he declared. “The great interests which are trying to defeat this plan, the greatest constructive enterprise ever undertaken, have tried to prejudice the farmer by telling him that he should have roads from farm to farm, instead of great slabs of concrete from city to city.

“Every farmer knows that if he wants to tile-drain his farm, he will put in the mains first, then connect his laterals afterwards. The proposed 10,000 miles of roads are the mains of Illinois, and they will be later connected by laterals from the different farms, and these will probably be constructed of cheaper materials.”

Small said that the proposed road system would, when completed, “carry 95 percent of the traffic in the state, and that 99 percent of the population will live within five miles of a paved road.”

On August 12, 1921, Governor Small led the celebration of the longest paved road in Illinois. The 146-mile concrete highway, stretching from downtown Chicago to Danville, Illinois, was named the “Dixie Highway,” since it would eventually extend all the way to Miami, Florida. Speaking at ceremonies in Chicago, Small declared, “The Dixie Highway…represents the longest stretch of perfect automobile roadway in Illinois. Within a few years, you will see every city in this beautiful state linked by just such roads as the Dixie Highway …Yes, we are pulling Illinois out of the mud!”

While nearly all the “hard roads” built in the 1920s were 18-foot-wide concrete slabs (in later years, many of these roads were widened by adding a half-lane of asphalt paving on either side), the last major highway to be built during Small’s administration was 40 feet wide. Opened in 1928, the road designated as “Governor’s Highway) stretched northward from Bourbonnais   through Kankakee, Will, and Cook counties to 120^th street, where it connected to the Chicago street grid. Described as a “superhighway,” the road is today designated as Illinois Route 50.

When he left office in January, 1929, the “Good Roads Governor” had paved more than 7,000 miles of roads —far more than any other state at that time.

Jack Klasey is a former Journal reporter and a retired publishing executive. He can be contacted at jwklasey@comcast.net.