Henry J. Wheeler Farm

The Henry J. Wheeler Farm is one of the few remaining late 19th century farmsteads in the Salt Lake Valley that have not been lost to expanding housing developments of metropolitan Salt Lake City. Listed on the National Register of Historical Places since 1976, it is situated on 75acre in Murray, Utah. The historic complex includes an adobe and brick home and several outbuildings, all constructed in 1898. There are, in addition to the home, a granary, ice house, chicken house, and work shed. A barn, also built in 1898, burned down in 1973. Together, this complex of buildings, along with the fences, trees, stream, ice ponds, roads, constitutes one of the few complete and operating historic farmsteads in the county. It is currently operated as the Wheeler Historic Farm by the Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation Department.The farm was established by Henry J. Wheeler, the third son of English Mormon converts, who came to Utah in 1852. Born February 18, 1866, Henry grew up on his father’s farm in the South Cottonwood (now Murray) area. In 1886, at the age of twenty, he married Sariah Pixton and established his own farm in the vicinity of his father's farm. The present brick home and several outbuildings were constructed in 1898 by Sid Gills and Hans Yorgensen. A Mr. Hayes, employed by the Sugar House Lumber Company, was the carpenter for the interior woodwork. The home, according to the 1902 publication, Biographical Record of Salt Lake City and Vicinity, "...was planned by Mrs. Wheeler and reflects great credit upon her knowledge of architecture, as it is not only homelike and convenient, but one of the prettiest little farm houses to be found in the county.”