Heart’s Delight Farm
Welcome to Our Farm
Thank you for visiting Miner Institute.
Our short wayside garden walk includes interpretive panels that bring you back to our beginnings as Heart’s Delight Farm.
In 1903, William H. Miner, a wealthy railroad entrepreneur, began transforming his boyhood home into a rural retreat called Heart’s Delight Farm. He and his wife Alice lived in two worlds. They kept the benefits of Chicago with its bustling business and city living and added the peace and quiet of country life near the hamlet of Chazy on the homestead of his grandfather Clement. Miner could continue to make money in the busy city of Chicago but also retreat to his Heart’s Delight, so close to nature.
If you happened by in 1902, you would be looking at a little farmhouse and a modest cattle barn sitting on 144 acres. Ten years later, you would have been standing in the middle of a huge 8,000-acre complex called Heart’s Delight Farm, a source of undeniable pride — and immense joy — to William H. and Alice T. Miner.
Heart of the Farm Heart’s Delight Farm Hustle and Bustle on the Farm
The Stone Entrance Gate Heart’s Delight Cottage Harmony Hall
The Farm Office Heart’s Delight Gardens Philosophy Amidst Nature