Stop 4: Historic Farm

This old farm is one of many that used to run here, before the park became a park.

These rolling meadows and wide open pastures were once home to a variety of farming endeavors ranging from cereal grains and vegetables, to beef and dairy cattle, and later pig raising. From the late 1600's all the way up through the mid 1900's this grassland was home to a series of farmers and millers. During the Colonial period this area was a part of the "Colonial Bread Basket", which was basically a way of describing all of the farming and milling that provided bread and other grain foods to the colonies and beyond.

When the farms were run as dairy farms under Du Pont, the farm complex you see here and the farm down by where our maintenance area is today, supported between them up to 200 cattle. At this time (late 1800’s early 1900’s) the fields surrounding the Tulip Tree Woods were primarily used for grazing, while the lower fields just up from Wilson’s Run were planted with corn and wheat.

This farm is now modernly referred to as the Fenton Complex, after a beloved park employee of the past, Earl Fenton, who lived in the farm house for many years.

To get to the next stop:

From this bench go past the bulletin board for the disc golf course and towards the cluster of trees. Look for the first tee for the course!