farmhouse circa 1860

The farmhouse has been around since the 1860s. It started as 2 rooms, each with a fireplace, surrounded by thick stone walls. Lucky for us, it has since been expanded to include a kitchen and bathroom. Years ago, at the end of the road, ice was harvested from the Pruss Hill Dam, earning this neighborhood the name, “The Cold Box.” In later years, the dam would serve as a swim club—though we can’t imagine swimming there now.

Even after all this time, the home has only been owned by a few other families before us. We’re unsure who the original owner was, but our neighbors tell us there was a single family who owned all the old homes on the street and that the property was later split up. It is believed that, at one point, the home may have belonged to the family of Mary Ann Hetzel who married Frederick Ramer. Ramer, the owner of the home around the turn of the century, was an immigrant from Germany who created goods woven from the willows that grew on the property. He also grew flax for flaxseed oil, but sadly, there is no trace of flax or willow trees left here. Around 1920, Ramer’s granddaughter Alice Sheifley moved in with her husband John Scheifley, where they used the land as a chicken farm. We are fairly sure other animals lived here at that time as well to fill the stables under the bank barn and the pig pen next to the carport. About 60 years later, the Spares moved in and lived here for 40+ years. We were lucky enough to meet them at closing, where they gifted us a homemade book with pictures and names of wildflowers around the property. Cora Spare’s recipe for hummingbird food is written directly in the kitchen cabinets and the love they had for this home buzzes through the walls. The kitchen garden, in which we sowed our first seeds, was Cora’s garden.

The history before colonization

Long before the house and the farms were developed, this land belonged to the Lenni-Lenape people. Sanatoga Creek runs through the property, weaving its way around the wetlands. As we’ve learned to identify plants around the trails, we have also discovered how sacred and rare this ecosystem is. In North America, nearly 85% of wetlands have been destroyed as a means of agricultural expansion. For centuries, indigenous people cared for lands such as these and lived in reciprocity with the natural environment. Today, we see it is overgrown with invasive species like burning bush and honeysuckle vines. The ash trees are dying from disease and a Sunoco pipeline easement runs directly through the creek. It is still a stunning sight with ancient oaks and maples towering high above our heads, frogs by the hundreds that come out to sing in the rain, the alien skunk cabbage sprouts who are first to welcome the Spring, and of course, the rippling creek with fresh, clear water that splashes on the edges of rocks, feeding the bright green moss along the shore.