Fair Field on Polly Drummond's Hill

North side of the Fair Field barn

Although farms in the 18th and 19th Centuries were awash in all kinds of structures, both large and small, the two most important were the dwelling house and the barn, just not always in that order. In fact, it was not unusual for a family settling on a new piece of ground to first build a small log home while they worked on the larger, permanent barn, then only several years later replace their home with a larger, more permanent stone or frame house. For while the family could make due with a smaller home for a while, they still needed a place for their livestock and equipment, without which they'd be looking at some very hard times.

As the 19th Century gave way to the 20th and the landscape of MCH changed, many of these farms ceased operating. Some were abandoned, leaving all the buildings to fall into ruins. On a lucky few, both the house and the barn were saved, either because some farming was still done or the families worked to save the barn. But because they are large and require a lot of upkeep, most times the barn was left to fall into disrepair or be torn down, even if its accompanying farmhouse was still in use. On most MCH properties where a historic home still stands, either the barn is completely gone or at best, a few walls stand in testament to its existence.

There are very few instances, however, where circumstances allowed for a barn to survive where the house did not (I should mention that the house and barn were usually built very near each other, no more than a quick walk apart). In one such instance, an old fieldstone barn is now in the hands of  a non-profit organization that, while having nothing to do with history, is nonetheless working to upkeep and continue to utilize the historic structure. The group is the Drummond Hill Pool, and the beautiful barn is the last remnant of the estate once known as Fair Field.

Like most of the farms in MCH, this one began as part of a much larger tract. What confuses things in this case is that the large tracts in this area were broken up through the early and middle 1700's, only to have different large properties cobbled back together later in the century. In our particular case here, the man buying up properties was a Philadelphian named Thomas Montgomery. To add another layer of confusion, although there were several Montgomery families in MCH, Thomas does not appear to be directly related to any of them.

One of the earliest owners of the land that would become Fair Field was Jonathan Evans, listed in deeds as a cordwainer (shoemaker). He bought 402 acres prior to 1713 and sold it in 1724 to Presbyterian minister Thomas Craighead. In 1727, Craighead sold 1½ acres to be used for the new White Clay Creek Presbyterian meeting house. Although the little church is long gone, the 1727 lot is still there along with a small cemetery. Little more than a century later, another notable adjacent small lot was sold off, with connections to this time period, but more on that in a moment.

As noted, tracing the exact area in question gets a bit tricky (for me, at least) for the next half century or so, until the arrival of  the aforementioned Thomas Montgomery. In the 1770's and 1780's there were several tracts sold by Montgomery to Blair McClenachen, then bought back a few years later, totaling almost 700 acres. In 1808, having already sold off most of this land, Montgomery conveyed the remaining (approximately) 202 acres to John McMullin. This excepted the Meeting House land, but did include what must have been an already old house.

McMullin apparently died around 1815, because in that year the farm was seized from his widow when she could no longer make the mortgage payments (to Montgomery), and sold to John Clark. In 1833, John Clark sold the farm to his son, Cantwell. But before doing so, he sold 3½ acres to Samuel Macklem in 1829. Macklem sold an acre of that in 1835 to Robert Graham, who erected a tavern there. Three years later, Graham sold his tavern to Mary (Polly) Drummond and her two sisters. Up until that time, the area was known as Meeting House Hill. Soon after (and until this day) it would become Polly Drummond's Hill. And one more note on Polly -- she was a widow when she bought the tavern and her maiden name was Evans (she was the niece of the brilliant and underappreciated inventor Oliver Evans). Most likely the Jonathan Evans who had owned the land a century earlier was her great grandfather.

But back to the main farm, in 1839 Cantwell Clark made a series of land deals with Joseph S. Gilbert. Both men lived in Pencader Hundred, near Glasgow, and Clark bought land from Gilbert just north of Glasgow. In turn, Gilbert purchased Clark's 200 acres along the "road leading to Christiana Bridge" (now Polly Drummond Hill Road). Gilbert does appear to have made this his home, as he and his family are listed there in the 1840 and 1850 Censuses. Joseph lived there until his death in 1852 and the following year Eli Mote, as executor of Gilbert's will, sold the farm to John Elliott of Brandywine Hundred.

Elliott came from a prominent Brandywine Hundred family that owned multiple properties. Shortly before moving to MCH Elliott sold a home on Shipley Road (just south of Weldin Road) to Joseph Shipley. The beautiful home still stands today. Elliott also sold land to Shipley that became part of his Rockwood estate. John Elliott moved his family to his new MCH farm and called it Fair Field (and/or possibly Clearfield).

The Elliott farms in 1860. Fair Field to the east
and the two "Home Farms" to the west

From what I can tell, though, Elliott may not have made this his primary home for long. Just two years later, in March 1855, he purchased 98 acres from the estate of William Mote, situated on the west side of Paper Mill Road about halfway between Newark and Milford Crossroads (and also the farm directly south of it). John Elliott may have been thinking of his family's future with these purchases. He was already a widower when he moved to MCH, and his son John Lee Elliott was about 14 when he acquired the Mote farm. When the elder Elliott died in 1861, his will granted the former Mote farm to John L., and referred to it as "the Home Farm." The former Gilbert property was given to his youngest daughters, Josephine and Mary. And though the maps show it as Fair Field, Elliott's will called it Clearfield.

The family held on Fair Field/Clearfield a few more years, not selling it until 1868. The new owner was Thomas Brooks, who came from White Clay Creek Hundred in the area near Old Baltimore Pike and Salem Church Road. The Brooks family spent only about seven years on Polly Drummond's Hill, because in 1875, unable to make the mortgage payment, the farm was sold back to William Bright (he was in real estate and had been the Guardian for the Elliott daughters in 1868 and provided the mortgage to Brooks). Bright held on to the farm (almost certainly as a rental property) until 1881, when it was sold and a major change made.

Bright sold to William and Rebecca Thompson, at the same time that Thompson sold Bright his land in Wilmington (well, not "in" at the time) in what's now the Rockford Park/Highlands area. But, Bright only sold the Thompsons 100 of the 200+ acres of the original farm, namely the section east of Polly Drummond Hill Road. While William was a Delawarean, Rebecca was an English-born Philadelphian. They married in Philadelphia in 1861 and had seven children by the time they moved to MCH. Their youngest daughter, Kate, was about six when they moved.

William Thompson died in March 1894, but the family remained on the farm. In fact, they would do so for the next 70 years or so. The reason they could do so is that in 1898, the now 23 year old Kate married local boy Lewis Greenwalt. Lewis grew up less than a mile and a half away on farms along White Clay Creek, both north (today's Creekside/Green Valley neighborhood) and south (now Brookhaven and Sheffield Manor). Lewis moved onto the Thompson farm, and in 1903 his father, John L. Greenwalt, purchased the farm for him from the ailing Rebecca Thompson. Three years after John's death in 1910, Lewis bought out the other heirs (his brothers and sister) and took full ownership of the estate once known as Fair Field. For the next 50 years it would be the Greenwalt farm.

Lewis and Kate eventually had two sons, Franklin and Gaylord. After Lewis Greenwalt died in April 1931, the family continued to run the farm. In 1952 they leased most of the farm to the Collins family, but Frank and Gaylord used the northern part (where the shopping center is now...New Linden Hill Road followed a more northerly course and came out north of Fox Den Road) for a rather unique business -- the Greenwalts ran a commercial rabbit hatchery. Their "products" were not destined to be pets, but rather were sold to hospitals for use as pregnancy tests. It was such a noteworthy endeavor that in October 1952, Gaylord appeared on the (then) radio show "What's My Line". If you're too young to remember, the show consisted of a celebrity panel trying to guess the guest's occupation. (And if you are old enough to remember, congratulations on that and knowing how to access a blog.)

See, I told you he was on

Kate Greenwalt passed away in 1961, and five years later the property was sold to Leon N. Weiner and Associates for development. By that point the Greenwalts hadn't lived in the old farmhouse for more than 30 years, and it may have been completely vacant for more than a decade. A newspaper article from July 7, 1966 gives us one of only two descriptions of the house that I've been able to find. It stood about 100 feet from the barn, in what's now an open field and play area. It was built in three distinct sections, the oldest being a log house that may easily have dated back to the Evans or Craighead eras, in the early 1700's. Attached to the log house was a fieldstone section, which architects in the 1960's thought may have been built at the same time because there was no wall between them. I would suggest that the log house could have been built first and the stone part added soon after, but in either case they were very old.

The Greenwalt (Fair Field) House in 1966, shortly before demolition

Adjoining these was a third section, believed to date to the late 18th or early 19th Century. The other description of the house, made by writer Francis A. Cooch in 1935, mentions only the larger log and smaller stone sections. The third section, which I assume was of frame construction, was connected to the other two, presumably in the rear. Unfortunately, by 1966 the house was in such disrepair that restoring or moving it was not practical. It was offered to a preservation group, but they were unable to help. The old house, possibly upwards of 250 years old at the time, was torn down.

The Pumpe House (stone barn) as seen from the street

The stone barn, however, remained. Even though it had suffered a devastating fire in the 1940's, the walls were unharmed and it had been rebuilt. It was decided to keep the barn and use it as a community center for the new Village of Drummond Hill. It was renamed the Pumpe House, in keeping with an early theme for the community. The swim club was created soon after, and the Pumpe House became theirs. As anyone who has dealt with historic structures knows, they take lots of work and upkeep, and the swim club as worked hard to keep the old barn in good shape. It's a bank barn, built into the hillside and typical of the area, and you don't get a feel for its full size until you walk around to the east side, away from the street.

The east side of the barn, showing its full height

This barn, probably well over 200 years old, is in remarkable shape, a testament to its construction and to the care it's been given. It's the last remaining piece of an estate that reaches back to the earliest European settlement in the area. It's been through many hands over the years: from early settlers to men of the cloth, from absentee owners to local farmers, and from rabbit breeders a community swim club. The old barn has stood watch over centuries of history on Meeting House/Polly Drummond's Hill.