“Every great architect is—necessarily—a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.” – Frank Lloyd Wright.

In 1887, 20 year-old Frank Lloyd Wright moved to Illinois to study under the famed Adler & Sullivan architectural firm. Wright helped Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan reshape Chicago’s landscape after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. For six years, he helped restore the city’s skyline and make Chicago an architectural capital.

There is a good chance the pumpkins you carve, use as ornamental fall decorations or as pie filling for your holiday treats came from Central Illinois. 

Illinois leads the nation in pumpkin production, with a swath of land near Peoria producing most of the state’s pumpkin crop. Morton, Illinois is commonly referred to as the “Pumpkin Capital of the World”, hosting the annual Morton Pumpkin Festival and home to a Libby's pumpkin processing plant.

Any Economics 101 student knows business is driven by supply and demand. It’s not often a company succeeds in creating demand for its products – and changing the way people live in the process. Kozy’s Cyclery has done just that, and this year its owners have received the Illinois Retail Merchants Association’s “Retailer of the Year” award.