Oak Hill Farm, aka Breidablik

Oak Hill Farm, 1927

One of the aspects of history I find interesting is how many different "lives" a given property can have over the years, even if some of it is just different variations on a theme. A tract can go from virgin woodland, to family farm, to tenant farm, and back again. It can be owned locally or by wealthy "outsiders". Then, with the changes brought by the 20th Century, it can have a whole new life. Such is the case with a farm on the western bounds of Christiana Hundred, just a stones throw from Mill Creek Hundred.

On the east side of Centerville Road, just south of Lancaster Pike, sits the office complex known as Little Falls Center. Named for the creek that runs behind it, this building is a product of 1980's development. However, on the property stands a fieldstone house that is considerably older. Although hundreds of American office workers now spend their days there (well, they used to, and will again sometime soon), the history of the property goes back to before there were "Americans", to when deeds here included phrases like, "[…] and in the fourth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third of Great Britain France and Ireland King […]". 

That particular gem appeared in the 1764 transfer of 200 acres from Mounce Justis to Peter Paulson for the sum of 50 Pounds. The tract spread from Little Fall Creek (named as such in the deed) all the way over to Red Clay Creek. Paulson would eventually sell the section west of Centerville Road to his son John. Peter's widow Ann would sell his home farm of 89 acres John Caldwell in 1808. When Caldwell died in the 1830's, he passed the farm to his nephew, also named John Caldwell. This Caldwell held on to the property for about ten more years, until selling it in 1843.

The new owner of the farm, which by this time had grown to encompass 113 acres, was George Grubb. Notably, this 1843 document is the first which calls the farm by the name of Oak Hill. I have not yet been able to decipher the relationship between the Caldwell farm and the Oak Hill Inn, located adjacent to it on the north side of Lancaster Pike. I'm not sure if the tavern was named for the farm or vice versa. (Or if one lent its name to the vicinity, and the other took its name from that.) Either way, Oak Hill was not the last name this particular farm would have.

Grubb owned the tract for a decade, selling it in 1853 to Philadelphian Erskine Hazard. It doesn't appear that Hazard actually lived on the farm, and likely owned it as a rental property. He was a pioneering and innovative businessman who helped to foster the coal, railroad, canal, and iron industries in the northeast. He was also the son of the last Postmaster General prior to the ratification of the Constitution. (Ebenezer Hazard seems to have lost his job because of a conflict with George Washington.) Erskine Hazard turned out to be the shortest-tenured of the owners of Oak Hill, only holding the property until 1859. The next family to reside in the old stone house would do so for almost 60 years. 

William A. Lynam was 26 when he purchased Oak Hill and moved in with new wife Louisa and young daughter Emma (and several farm hands). He was the son of Thomas and Evalina Lynam, and had grown up only about a mile away in a house that still stands along Barley Mill Road, opposite the Tatnall School. By all accounts Lynam was a prosperous and well-liked member of the community, and farmed his land for nearly 20 years. Sadly though, in December 1878 the 47 year-old William succumbed to a "pulmonary affection". Although his obituary (seen below) states that he left "several children", I'm pretty sure he and Louisa had only Emma. 

William A. Lynam's obituary, December 1878

In his will, William left Oak Hill to Louisa, and then to Emma after her passing. The youngest Lynam did hold on to the farm after her mother died in 1906, although it seems that both leased the property to tenants. Beginning as early as 1910 Emma Lynam was attempting to sell the farm, which she probably wishes she had done before February 6, 1912. That was when the seemingly almost inevitable event in the life of a farm this size occurred, and the barn was destroyed in a fire. According to the newspaper, five horses and fifteen cows were lost, all belonging to the tenant, Edward Lucas. It was thought that the fire was the result of arson, because one of the Lynam's horses returned to the farm early the next morning. The assumption was that the arsonist had let the horse out while doing his dastardly deed. (Or that maybe he was stealing the horse, and set the fire accidentally while doing so.)

Henrik J. Krebs (1847-1929)

When Miss Emma Lynam did finally sell the farm in 1917 it was to an interesting buyer, and it would usher in the final agrarian chapter in Oak Hill's story. The new owner was not a Christiana Hundred native, or even a native-born American. He was 69 year-old Henrik J. Krebs, native of Denmark and owner of the Krebs Pigment and Chemical Company in Newport. Since Krebs had a chemist's mind, it's not surprising that he envisioned his farm, now renamed Breidablik, as the very model of a modern, sanitary dairy facility. Their motto was "Clean Milk From Clean Cows".

Interior of one of the Breidablik barns, 1931

Joining Krebs in his new venture was his son, August Sonnin Krebs. After Henrik's death in 1929, Sonnin, a Cornell-educated engineer, took full control over Breidablik. He continued to oversee operation of the farm, having retired from the chemical industry after selling the family company to Dupont in 1929. Breidablik Farm can be seen in the 1927 aerial photo below, with the new construction sitting right along the east side of Centerville Road. The old Oak Hill house and barn (presumably rebuilt after the 1912 fire) can be seen towards the bottom left. For reference, the current entrance into Little Falls Center is directly south of the main dairy farm.

Breidablik Farm, 1927

Breidablik Farm later expanded its operation and added ice cream to its roster, also opening a dairy garden, as the April 1942 ad below touts. This, however, would be closer to the end of Breidablik Farm than the beginning. By August 1946, the dairy farm was no longer in operation, as there was a sale that month for 64 head of cattle. Two months later, Hercules purchased 248 acres from A. Sonnin Krebs, including the former Breidablik Dairy Farm. (Krebs retained his property along Barley Mill Road, north of Lancaster Pike.) It was originally planned to be used as an expansion for their experimental station, adjacent to the property on the west side of Red Clay Creek. Hercules never ended up using the Breidablik/Oak Hill property for anything other than storage, although for several years afterwards there was horseback riding offered at the site, specializing in children's programs.

Ad for the Breidablik Farm Dairy Garden, 1942

Sometime in the 1970's (?), Centerville Road was realigned and curved to the east, just north of the dairy farm complex, so that it intersected Lancaster Pike where the old entrance to Breidablik was. In the mid 1980's the property was sold to a developer, and in 1988 the Little Falls Center opened. However, a fair number of the dairy buildings remained well into the 1990's, standing on the north side of the entrance to Little Falls. Most surprisingly, the Lynam's old Oak Hill House, restored by Henrik Krebs and possibly dating back as for as Peter Paulson in the 1760's, still stands today and is used by the office complex. It stands as a testament to the many chapters in the story of this property.