The Milne House Garden

About

Jerry Adelmann, President Emeritus of Openlands, a conservation group based in Chicago, has gardened around his home for decades, enjoying everything from planting and watering to cutting back perennials.

The garden wraps around the historic house built of locally quarried limestone in 1842 by Erastus Newton, chief contractor for the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Nearby, a stone milk house is surrounded by a cottage-style garden filled with annuals and perennials.

Native prairie dropseed and little bluestem grasses mingle with baptisia, fragrant Nicotiana, Bergenia, Heuchera, Acanthus, Russian sage, Joe Pye weed and Amsonia. Several large trees, including an ancient hop hornbeam, pre-date the area’s first settlers. There are more than 50 species of trees and shrubs on the property as well as a stumpery.

The borrowed views across a field with a church steeple in the distance make visitors feel as if they’ve stepped back in time. Two hitching posts and a stone carriage step flank the sidewalk, hinting at the property’s past as a 19th-century farm and dairy.

Lockport and this house played an important role in the Abolitionist movement. Abraham Lincoln, an advocate for the canal, visited several times during construction. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This garden's estimated size is 1 acre.

This Garden Host reports the following Terrain Notes about the garden: The backyard slopes down to the field.

2026 Open Day Date: Saturday, August 8

Open Day Hours: 10am–4pm