The Samuel Stroud House

Part of the original log house
(Photo courtesy Ruth Clancy)

This story might seem like a follow-up to the recent guest post from Charles Stroud Gawthrop documenting the Stroud family. But, in one of those little coincidences I love, I had actually been thinking about and looking into this property before Charles reached out to me. In fact, when he did, it took me a moment to even realize they were connected. And I wouldn't have even known in the first place that this house had survived into "modern" times if it weren't for information passed on to us a while back from Ruth Clancy.

We'll get to the end of the line for the house (and Ruth's recollections of it) shortly, but frustratingly I know a good bit more about its end than I do its beginning. I found details about the creation of the particular farm that the house anchored, and about its ownership for more than a century. What I've been thus far unable to find are specifics about the early ownership of the land and about who might have built the house and when. But let's start with some basic facts, like just what the heck I'm talking about and where.

The 120 acre farm owned by Samuel Stroud and his descendants is now (and has been since 1950) a part of the grounds owned by Delaware Park. More specifically, most of the farm is now a part of the White Clay Creek Country Club golf course. The property is bordered on the south by the railroad tracks (which were new at the time the tract was laid out), on the west by a small stream, and on the north by a combination of White Clay Creek (the western part) and the Byrnes Mill race (towards the east). The farmhouse stood just above the railroad tracks in the middle of the larger, western portion -- right where the clubhouse and At the Rail Restaurant is located.