1887
View of Stoneleigh
05
From this spot by the white oak, pan from your left (the north side) to the right (over the hill to the east) from this garden. This property on the left and the Natural Lands' Stoneleigh was one estate between 1848-1922. Take a moment to take in the vast expanse.
Edmund Smith (1829-1895), the young Pennsylvania Railroad Company executive who bought this property, was one of many Gilded Age success stories and powerful elite. Here he built a mansion and called it Stoneleigh.
An 1887 newspaper article gives us a detailed tour of Edmund Smith’s Stoneleigh, including this
inventory of his farm on the back half of the property (but no details on who did the work on this
productive farm:
a path leads through the garden from the mansion to the farmhouse, and beyond the latter is Mr. Smith’s farm. The estate covers 65 acres, and of this land, 13 acres are finely ornamented lawn and 35 acres devoted to farming purposes, there being 7 acres of corn, 10 acres of wheat, 4 acres of oats, 2 acres of potatoes, 17 acres of pasture and mowing land, 10 acres of fine woodland, and a very prolific orchard. Over 30 tons of hay are raised each season on the farm, and last year the farm produced 86 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of potatoes, 200 bushels of oats, and 300 bushels of rye. The estate contains a quantity of livestock, among which are a number of Jersey cows and some fine horses.” (Betley)
To shape the grounds, Smith hired landscape gardener Charles H. Miller, who trained at Kew Gardens in England and later served as chief gardener for Fairmount Park.
For more photos and information about Stoneleigh go to the Organ Historical Society or Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden.
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