In 1922 he bought a small radio station in Rock Island, Illinois, and moved it to a studio near the school's campus and it became WOC.

[4] The Palmer Family Residence was built in the Second Empire style in 1874 by Louis C. Dessaint, who was a local lumber mill owner.

It incorporated the trunks and branches of four oak trees that were cut down to make room for a classroom building that was built next to the house.

Some of the logs are wrapped in belts with metal buckles from the uniforms of Palmer students who served in World War I.

The house also contains a sunken solarium that features a ceiling of square latticework that is painted to look like a circus wagon in colors of yellow, green, orange and red.

It also contains an eclectic collection that includes a humidor and umbrella stand made out of elephants’ feet, which is next to a kangaroo from Australia.

Rounding out the collection is a figure in Carrara marble from Italy, a Buddha from Siam, Japanese lanterns, and a Buddhist monk's umbrella that has been made into a light fixture.

Palmer obtained these from a local merchant, Wayne Montgomery, who would keep aside a floor tile every time he sold a batch of them.

A courtyard contained items such as totem poles, statues of deer, birds and the birth of Venus.

There was a rock-lined corridor called “purgatory” that led to the heart of the exhibit that contained a large greenhouse with a waterfall of 40 feet (12 m) and a pond that was filled with tropical fish, alligators and Oriental art.

[6] The site also contained what Palmer claimed was the smallest chapel in the world, it was 8 square feet (0.74 m2), and thousands of people wed there.