Woodland Palace was the home that Fred Francis built and filled with innovations, including a water purification system and air conditioning. Francis, an inventor and innovator, artist, and poet, was born near Kewanee in 1856 and graduated from the Illinois Industrial University in Urbana in 1878. While there, he was one of the designers and builders of the 'Class of 78' clock, now in the north tower of the Illini Union. He died in 1926 and bequeathed the estate to the City of Kewanee to be maintained as a city park and museum.