The Birdman of Kankakee

At his Bird Lodge home in Kankakee, Dodson examines one of the dozens of bird houses hung on trees and mounted on poles around the Harrison Avenue house. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive) 

By Jack Klasey

October 25, 2025

To say that Joseph H. Dodson loved birds was like observing that a politician is interested in getting elected. Dodson, for more than a quarter-century was the “birdman of Kankakee,” operating a bird sanctuary on the large grounds of his home at 701 S. Harrison Avenue.

If that address seems familiar, you probably know Dodson’s home as the B. Harley Bradley house, designed in 1900 by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Dodson purchased the house in 1915, when he retired from a career at the Chicago Board of Trade and moved to Kankakee.

He was attracted to the house by its large, well-landscaped grounds with river frontage and its location on a quiet dead-end street. Dodson proceeded to populate the grounds of his new home with feeders and birdhouses to attract feathered visitors. He succeeded wildly — his 1949 obituary in the New York Times noted, “His home was known as Bird Lodge, where he maintained a sanctuary annually for more than 400 songbirds.”

One feature of the home that appealed strongly to Dodson was its large carriage house, which allowed him to greatly expand his birdhouse manufacturing business. Even before his retirement and move to Kankakee, he had built and sold birdhouses for many years. “To attract songbirds, get genuine Dodson Bird Houses. Dodson Houses are proven successes in thousands of gardens,” claimed a 1914 newspaper advertisement.

By the late 1920s, he was issuing a 24-page booklet, entitled “Your Bird Friends and How to Win Them” that combined advice for bird lovers with a catalog of his bird houses and other products. “The building of bird houses has been a hobby of mine for many years and never has been run solely for profit,” he wrote. “My own work is in financial affairs and yet there is no success in my life that I value higher than my success as an architect for birds.”

In his Kankakee carriage house/workshop, Dodson’s small staff of workers turned out avian dwellings ranging from small abodes for bluebirds or wrens to large “apartment houses” for purple martins. The largest of the martin houses was a mammoth 90-room model, more than five feet in height, that was mounted on a 22-foot support post.

Dodson’s love of birds did not extend to all species; he was a relentless foe of the English sparrow. “The English sparrow,” he declared,” has wrought a great deal of evil to our country, chiefly by its activity in driving away native songbirds.” To combat this menace, he developed and marketed the “Famous Dodson Improved Sparrow Trap.” The metal trap sold for $6, and apparently was a successful catalog item, since he claimed to have “hundreds of letters…from delighted purchasers.”’

When Dodson died October 26, 1949, at the age of 87, he was described in several newspaper obituaries as “one of the leading authorities on songbirds and maker of bird houses.” He had begun building bird houses at the age of 20, and claimed to be the original manufacturer of bird houses in this country.

The business lived on after his death. Sometime in the 1940s, he had turned the manufacturing operation over to Mrs., James Nelis, his long-time secretary. She operated the business, along with William C. Lord, until 1956, when it was sold to Kankakeeans E.R. Rulison and William D, Poynter. They relocated the business to a showroom and manufacturing site on Illinois 54 (now Illinois 50). The company operated until 1974, when its listing disappeared from the Kankakee telephone directory.

In 1954, the Bird Lodge house became the Yesteryear Restaurant, which operated there for 30 years. It later was used for offices until 2005, when it was acquired by architect Gaines Hall and his wife Sharon. When the Halls bought the property, the carriage house that had been Dodson’s bird house workshop was badly deteriorated. They restored it to its original condition. Since 2010, the historic B. Harley Bradley House has been operated by Wright in Kankakee, a non-profit organization. The restored carriage house is now used as a gift shop.

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