These farms were in long fight to preserve the agricultural landscape of Lower Makefield
I braced myself in the cab of Ed Fleming’s pickup as we lurched across freshly plowed fields of his 300-acre Shady Brook Farm in Lower Bucks. Ed was explaining to me that summer four decades ago what it took to be a vegetable grower in suburbia. Thirty years earlier he owned a very fertile farm in Andalusia until bulldozers started carving a corridor through a piece of the farm for expanded Woodhaven Road at its intersection with I-95.
It was clear the new highways would herald development in the 1960s. Time to move. Ed sold the farm which became Woodhaven Mall. He used the cash to buy Shady Brook surrounded by other family farms where Lower Makefield, Newtown and Middletown come together.
Despite this relative security, I-95 would have its creeping impact. The highway was originally to follow Route 13 from the Philadelphia border past the lower edge of Levittown to Morrisville and Trenton. Opponents in Trenton objected, forcing a re-plotted route through Middletown and Lower Makefield to a new Delaware River bridge above Yardley in the late 1960s. That made Shady Brook, neighboring farms and villages attractive to would-be developers.
A new housing tract popped up on the backside of Ed’s farm. Determined to bond with Silver Lake neighbors, he spread fertilizer and pesticides close to the ground to prevent wind drift toward the homes. He also offered free vegetables in-season to homeowners. They expressed admiration of the care Ed and his family took managing the farm. From dawn to dusk he was out in the fields, sometimes sleeping overnight in his truck.
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My daughter Genevieve and I became familiar figures as I worked on a story about suburban farming for Philadelphia magazine. Shady Brook seemed a wonder to us. At night, a large warehouse became an electronic nerve center arranging trucking for regional farm perishables. Still, I wondered whether Shady Brook could withstand encroaching development. “Zoning on our farm and others would have to change for that to happen,” said Ed. “And one more thing.” He pulled over and pointed to Stony Hill Road fronting the farm near its intersection with Yardley Newtown Road (Route 332). “Without sewer lines along that road there can be no development.”
As the years unwound, neighboring farms persevered. They included the Patterson farm on Mirror Lake Road on the far side of I-95, the Wright dairy farm opposite Shady Brook across Route 332 and Harry Torbert’s farm catecorner to Shady Brook on Creamery Road. Ed Fleming remained a realist. “This farm is my social security. We may have to sell or subdivide in the future. Who knows?”
Today the landscape is a development hotspot. Zoning changes are edging forward. Sewer lines worm down Stony Hill Road. Office complexes have sprouted. New townhouses, apartments and a giant Wegmans grocery store are under construction. Traffic has become intense.
The Flemings carry on by turning Shady Brook into a family entertainment venue with a garden center, farm store, pub, winery and seasonal events including holiday light shows. The Pattersons in 1998 sold their 200-acre farm to Lower Makefield for permanent preservation as a working farm. Currently, a study is underway to perhaps add other uses.
Lately, a plan to build 78 homes on the 106-acre Torbert farm hatched. In the early 1960s, the farm’s zoning changed to R-1 enabling Harry’s estate to eventually build homes after Harry’s passing a few years ago. The property is under lease to a local farmer with a portion in use as a youth equestrian center. Many of the 19th century outbuildings including the barn are in ruins. The thought of the farm succumbing to development angers area homeowners and motorists worried about the impact on rural Creamery Road. But current zoning eases the way for new homes. Widening Creamery Road and preserving some of the farm as open space seem probable. Time will tell.
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Sources include “Plan could bring new homes to Lower Makefield’s Torbert Farm” by Peg Quann published on April 19 in the Bucks County Courier Times, and historical survey documents concerning the Torbert farm provided by the community development office of Lower Makefield.
Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Vanishing Bucks County and the long fight to preserve the landscape
