Stony Kill Farm Environmental Education Center is located on NY 9D in the Town of Fishkill,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, United States. It is a 1,000+ acre (3 km²) working farm owned by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as an

environmental education Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating discipli ...

center. The nonprofit Stony Kill Foundation is responsible for its daily operations. Today, Stony Kill is a working farm and is home to numerous livestock. It also offers educational programs and an "Open Barn" event. The nonprofit Common Ground Farm rents property to grow flowers, vegetables, and herbs on the grounds. There is also a community garden, greenhouse, haying fields, pastures, and the Verplanck Memorial Perennial Garden. Additionally, the property offers hiking, fishing, and birding to the public.

History

In 1683, settlers Gulian Verplanck and Francis Rombout bought the 85,000-acre (430 km²) tract, including the farm, from the

Wappinger people The Wappinger ( ) were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutches ...

for goods worth approximately $1,250. In 1708 the Great Partition of this land put the area around the farm in the Verplanck family's hands. Instead of working it themselves, they took in

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and ma ...

s to keep the land worked and productive. They built the

stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

tenant farmhouse near the property's main entrance in four sections between the late 17th and early 19th centuries. An 1836 subdivision of the property gave a thousand acres (4 km²), including the current farm, to descendant James DeLancy Verplanck of nearby

Beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

. He had a

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

home, now known as the Manor House, built and moved into it in 1842. The building is now used as a visitor center. A century later, his descendants donated the farm to the state Education Department (SED) for use as a teaching farm. It was used for this purpose by SUNY Farmingdale until the late 1960s, when the college decided it no longer needed the property. In 1973, DEC took it over and converted it to its present use. The Stony Kill Foundation was created in 1977 and installed a community garden. Stony Kill was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980. A classroom was added to the barn in the 1980s. Descendants of the Verplanck family donated funds to create the Verplanck Memorial Perennial Garden in 1997. Following financial difficulties that nearly closed the farm, the Stony Kill Foundation took over daily operations in 2010. Stony Kill's Learning Center was reopened in 2020.

References

External links

Stony Kill Foundation
{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Fishkill, New York Nature centers in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Dutchess County, New York Protected areas of Dutchess County, New York Education in Dutchess County, New York