Broadlands Farm

Broadlands Farm

Culture

This site represents the architectural core of what was once a bustling early twentieth-century “gentleman’s” farm complex. The farmstead, as it appears today, was laid out in a courtyard plan by Hoagland Gates around 1929. Architecturally, Broadlands illustrates the importance of dairying and tenant farming in early-twentieth-century Cecil County. Despite the recent loss of many of the surrounding farm fields, the machine shed with double corn crib and the three tenant houses represent a transition from tobacco to grains, and the subsequent increase in and continued importance of farm tenancy from the mid-nineteenth through the twentieth century in the county. The dairy barn with attached barnyard and silo, including the extant dairy equipment on the first story of the barn, exemplifies the increased importance of the dairy industry to Cecil County agriculture in the early twentieth century. Together, the buildings show a symbiotic relationship between dairying and grain production, in that the farm was designed to continue both practices.

reconstructions

2015

Reconstruction

1515

In Copyright (InC)

current,39.6484351,-75.8079019;

https://player.vimeo.com/video/1105488794

TEXT

Broadlands Farm environment, archive and concept created by Alice Watterson, Kieran Baxter and Tone Julskjaer, interactive programming by Open Virtual Worlds. Work completed on behalf of RGA Incorporated.

The Cecil County School of Technology stands on lands which were once part of Broadlands Farm. Established by Hoagland Gates in the late 1920’s, Broadlands was a “gentleman’s” farm that specialized in the breeding and improvement of Jersey dairy cows. Although much of the farm has been redeveloped, the hay barn and other structures have been retained and now house the Cecil County Farm Museum.

Broadlands Farm

Alice Watterson, John McCaffery, Kieran Baxter, Tone Julskjaer, Alan Miller

1920s