Brodhead-Heller Farm ("Wheat Plains"): Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Mealey J. 2024. Brodhead-Heller Farm ("Wheat Plains"): Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 300033. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Brodhead-Heller Farm, also known as “Wheat Plains”, is part of Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (NRA), which encompasses 67,210 acres along both sides of the Delaware River in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Established in 1965, the park provides unique opportunities to experience tranquil landscapes, rich human history, and striking scenery along 40 miles of the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi. The park acquired Brodhead-Heller Farm, located in Lehman Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania, in 1970. Brodhead-Heller Farm is situated along US Route 209 on the western side of the Delaware River. The 209.1-acre property encompasses the remnants of one of the most prosperous Upper Delaware Valley farms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On the western side of Route 209, a collection of domestic and agricultural structures is arrayed linearly along a historic farm road that follows Route 209’s pre-1932 alignment. The structures include the Brodhead-Heller Farmhouse, a stately, three-story, wood frame building that displays an eclectic mix of Dutch, Georgian, Adam (sometimes called Federal), Italianate, and Colonial Revival styles. The building’s impressive appearance is the result of a succession of expansions and modifications that were implemented throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To the rear of the farmhouse, a distinctive nineteenth-century spring house is built into the base of a wooded slope that defines the western portion of the cultural landscape. A short distance north of the spring house stands an early twentieth century garage. Approximately five hundred feet north of these domestic structures is a large, mid-nineteenth century, wood frame barn that stands near the center of the farm’s historic barnyard. Several smaller agricultural outbuildings are distributed throughout the area surrounding the barn. Approximately one hundred feet south of the barn flows Brodhead-Heller Creek (historically known as “Brinks Creek”), which descends from higher elevations to the west and continues east toward the Delaware River, passing through a culvert beneath US Route 209. On the eastern side of US Route 209, historic crop fields stretch across more than one hundred acres on the floodplain of the Delaware River. The fields were cultivated by the Brodhead family from the beginning of the nineteenth century and have remained in cultivation through special use permits under the National Park Service. Among the historic crop fields stand a farmstand and a shed that were erected around 2005. The farmstand stands near a parking area at the edge of Route 209 and the shed is located approximately two hundred feet to the east, surrounded by community garden plots that were established around 2011.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Mealey, James
- Date of Issue
- 2024
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- DEWA , NER
- Keywords
- "Wheat Plains", Agricultural Field, Agricultural Outbuilding, Agriculture, Agriculture/Subsistence, American Exploration and Settlement, Architecture, Barn, Brodhead Farm, Brodhead-Heller Farm ("Wheat Plains"), Colonial Exploration and Settlement, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, Developing the American Economy, Domestic (Residential), Exploration – Settlement, Expressing Cultural Values, Farm (Plantation), Forest, Heller Farm, Historic Vernacular Landscape, Landscape, Leisure-Passive (Park), Livestock, Natural Area, Orchards), Peopling Places, Single Family Dwelling, Single Family House, Small-Scale Commercial Agriculture (Crops, Storage (Granary/Silo)., Vernacular Architecture
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 300033: Brodhead-Heller Farm