Authored by Kat Baumgartner

On November 9, 1942, John Bayard Rodgers Verplanck, James DeLancey Verplanck, and their wives Evelina and Susan gave a 750-acre property to the Long Island Agricultural and Technical Institute, now Farmingdale State College, in exchange for one dollar. The Verplanck brothers had a particular vision for this land: “In presenting the gift of the farm to the State it was specifically stated in the Transfer of Title that the primary function of the farm would be to serve as an outdoor laboratory enabling Institute students to receive a wider range of instruction than would otherwise be possible at Farmingdale. In addition, the farm was to be kept in ‘Agriculture in Perpetuity.’”² 

Farmingdale began to question whether it was financially sensible to maintain Stony Kill Farm as early as 1958. Over the course of 15 years, from 1942 to 1957, the State Education Department and Farmingdale State College spent a total of $349,401 (taking into account profits made from operations of the farm) on building repair, land maintenance, daily farm operations, and student expenses such as the building of dorms.¹ While these expenses were necessary at the time, toward the end of the 1950s there was less of an emphasis being placed on agriculture on Long Island and therefore less students majoring in the subject at Farmingdale. There was also the issue of distance from the college, Stony Kill being located approximately two hours north of the school. Further, students were unhappy with the wage they were being paid for working at Stony Kill during their required 8-week summer internship and began to find higher-paying work elsewhere.³

Despite farm superintendent Herbert Muller, Sr.’s accounts of the usefulness of the outdoor laboratory, Farmingdale began the process of determining how to go about shutting down their operations on the land in 1963.

In April of that year, a tentative proposal of what to do with personnel, livestock, buildings, and crops was written. In November of the same year, a proposal was presented to the college that requested use of the land for the SUNY Center of Science and Technology, in response to Governor Nelson E. Rockefeller’s suggestion that New York have a graduate school comparable to MIT.⁴ However, since the land was granted to the State under the condition that it remain true to purposes of agricultural education, none of these plans were realized.

In 1977, the Stony Kill Foundation, Inc. was created; this is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public on environmental issues and historical topics, as well as maintain a working farm with livestock.⁵ Today, the farm has many hiking trails for the public to take advantage of, as well as classes and activities for children and adults to learn about farm operations. The history of the Verplanck family’s relationship to the land is kept alive through the information presented on New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) website, as well as the Verplanck Memorial Perennial Garden located at Stony Kill Farm.

My mission in conveying the history of this piece of land is to preserve the memory of those who once loved and cared for it. The Wappinger Indian’s connection to this land is well known to people who live in the area,⁶ but the Verplanck family expressed concern to various presidents of Farmingdale State College that their name was no longer being associated with the farm. Despite the brief history of the family included on the DEC’s website and the Verplanck name being attached to the memorial garden on the land, not much else has been published about all of the good that came from their 750-acre donation. This gift perfectly embodies the Vincentian notions of using physical resources to create solutions to problems and provide quality, equitable educational opportunities for all.

Footnotes

1. MacDougall to W. A. Medesy, Audit Report, 15 April 1958, [Box #: in the process of being archived], Papers of President Medesy, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

2. W.A. Medesy, “A Questionable Resource for Farmingdale”, 17 April 1958, [Box #: in the process of being archived], Papers of President Medesy, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

3. W.A. Medesy to L.L. Jarvie, March 1960, [Box #: in the process of being archived], Papers of President Medesy, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

4. Science Center Site Committee, Southern Dutchess Industrial Development Corp., “A Proposal for Selection of a Site for the State University of New York Center of Science and Technology”, October 1963, Papers of President Laffin, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

5. “Stony Kill Foundation.” Stony Kill Foundation. Accessed 22 March 2016. http://stonykill.org/sample-page.

6. Welcome to Mount Gulian Historic Site! (n.d.). Accessed May 10, 2016, from http://www.mountgulian.org/wappinger.html

References

MacDougall to W. A. Medesy, Audit Report, 15 April 1958, [Box #: in the process of being archived], Papers of President Medesy, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

Science Center Site Committee, Southern Dutchess Industrial Development Corp., “A Proposal for Selection of a Site for the State University of New York Center of Science and Technology”, October 1963, Papers of President Laffin, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

“Stony Kill Foundation.” Stony Kill Foundation. Accessed 22 March 2016. http://stonykill.org/sample-page.

W.A. Medesy, “A Questionable Resource for Farmingdale”, 17 April 1958, [Box #: in the process of being archived], Papers of President Medesy, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

W.A. Medesy to L.L. Jarvie, March 1960, [Box #: in the process of being archived], Papers of President Medesy, Farmingdale State College Archives, Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, New York.

Welcome to Mount Gulian Historic Site! (n.d.). Accessed May 10, 2016, from http://www.mountgulian.org/wappinger.html