A dairy farm adventure

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. — Long before ag-tourism was in fashion, the Cuneo family of Hawthorn Mellody Farms was providing such an experience in Chicago’s northern suburbs. From 1939-1970, the farm served as a working dairy and a popular tourist attraction.

Sitting on more than 1,200 acres of land between Vernon Hills and Libertyville, Hawthorn Mellody Farms was filled with activities the whole family could enjoy. The farm was open for tours and was also the site of an amusement park, petting zoo and a Wild West town known as “Hawthorn Gulch.” In addition, visitors could ride a miniature steam train around the property. 

Norman Utpadel, who milks 190 cows near Huntley, remembers visiting Hawthorn Mellody Farms many times as a youngster. He took school field trips to the farm in second through fourth grades and also visited with his family regularly in the 1960s.

“We used to live near Libertyville, and my parents would take me there on the weekends,” Utpadel said. “When my dad said, ‘We’re going to go to Hawthorn Mellody today,’ I was ready to go. The farm had all kinds of stuff, all kinds of entertainment, and it was educational at the same time. … We thought it was great.”

Hawthorn Mellody Farms Dairy was one of the largest dairy farms in Lake County. Here, state-of-the-art machinery processed milk from the farm’s cows that was delivered to homes from the North Shore as far south as Evanston. Visitors to the farm could stand behind viewing windows and watch the cows get milked.

For Utpadel, who did not grow up on a dairy farm, it was a special experience.

“The only time I had seen cows milked was in a barn at my uncle’s place,” he said. “At Hawthorn Mellody, everything was behind glass, and you could see the milk going through the glass pipeline into the bulk tank. Guys dressed up in white suits and white hats did the milking. It was stuff you didn’t see every day on the average farm.”

Cows were positioned in a way that gave spectators a view of the entire side of the cow and an unobstructed view of the milking process, Utpadel said.

“It was what you would have called at that time a modern-day parlor,” he said. “Everybody milked cows in buckets, and to see something like that was pretty amazing. You could go there just about any time and see cows being milked. They had Holsteins, and I believe they were all registered. They were a big dairy farm before big dairy farms were the way to be. They milked about 300 cows. The guy who used to test milk for me used to test milk for them too.”

The dairy touted its milk production process as “free of human touch” and served milk and ice cream on the grounds.

 “There was a cafeteria you could eat in, and I think if you wanted to, you could even bring a picnic lunch,” Utpadel said.

John Cuneo Sr. was the imagination behind Hawthorn Mellody Farms. Cuneo purchased the property in 1937 from Samuel Insull, who had originally bought 132 acres of land called Hawthorn Farm. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs and grocers, Cuneo was a printing company magnate with diverse business interests. He bought not only Insull’s estate but surrounding farmland as well to expand the dairy operation. The farm also raised horses, hogs and poultry.

 “A lot of prominent people owned farms at that time,” Utpadel said. “There was a lot of money along the shore. Chicago was a hub for agriculture at one time. There were lots of dairies. It was also the hog capital of the world and home of the International Livestock Show.”

Cuneo’s vision for the farm was to create a fun and educational space for adults and children alike to learn about agriculture and the dairy industry. As pioneers in agricultural tourism, the Cuneo family provided an early connection between farm and consumer, welcoming thousands of families and school groups to their doorstep.

“They were ahead of their time,” Utpadel said.

A team of oxen pulling a cart for people to ride in and a hitch team of Belgian draft horses are other highlights of the farm that Utpadel remembers.

“There were all kinds of things like that,” he said. “I wasn’t old enough to grasp it all at that time. My dad was very interested in the draft horses. He was a dairyman but got out of milking cows before I was born. Yet, he was always interested in dairy. It always intrigued him, and I was raised with that mentality. My dad’s heart was always with the cows.”

The petting zoo, also known as the children’s zoo, contained many kinds of animals, including turkeys, ducks, an elephant, llamas, monkeys, buffalo and more.

“You could put a penny or nickel in if you wanted to feed goats or sheep or other animals in the zoo,” Utpadel said. “I don’t know how many employees they had, but the place was buzzing all the time.”

The late 1960s would mark the beginning of the end for Hawthorn Mellody Farms as Cuneo began to part with portions of the dairy and the land. A drop in attendance caused the amusement park to close in the 1970s. After the dairy shut down, Utpadel said the Cuneo family continued to farm the land for quite some time.

“I don’t know why they closed the dairy, but suddenly we heard it was no more,” Utpadel said. “It happened quickly. I went to the machine sale at that time.”

The Hawthorn Mellody brand lived on under various corporate owners before dying out in the early 1990s. The pink Cuneo mansion on the property became a conference center and event space owned by Loyola University Chicago. The mansion appears in the 1997 movie, “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” starring Julia Roberts.

Today, no trace of the farm exists other than fractions of its name. The land has been transformed into a shopping and dining destination — home to both Hawthorn Mall and Mellody Farm — as well as residential housing.

However, for Utpadel and many others in the area, joy-filled visits to Hawthorn Mellody Farms are forever etched into childhood memories.

 “It was a jumping place in its day,” Utpadel said. “Hawthorn Mellody was a big deal.”

Sources:

— Loyola University Chicago Digital Special Collections

— Special segment by Geoffrey Baer on WTTW in Chicago

— Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal

— Interview with local dairy farmer