Where does time go? So it has been three years since I last posted. Sonya (who is my right-hand person and completely is irreplaceable to me on this journey) reminded me that people are interested in what is going on with the house. Well, honestly nothing has been going on up until last month. If you have visited the farm in the last year, you have noticed the addition of the tractor and barn playground which is a huge hit with the kids. We have made improvements to the parking lot and some other small projects. After finishing up another amazing Christmas season we started to forge ahead with the house. I have an awesome crew that wants to keep on working to bring Sandy Creek back to its former glory. The house that you see today was built in 1857 by Edward Wills. He had purchased the property and built a small house in 1855 and then two years later built the house you see today. In 1898 the farm was sold to Charles Craig Tallman and in 1906 he built a wooden addition. Under C. Craig Tallman the farm continued to flourish. C. Craig Tallman and his wife Mary had 6 children, 1 daughter and 5 sons, none of whom wanted the farm. The farm was then sold to Irving Tallman (relative of C .Craig Tallman). The farm did change hands to others and ultimately, we bought it from the Willard Family in 2018. The Willard’s had owned other Christmas Tree farms across the river in PA and upon Sam Willard’s death his children decided they wanted to concentrate on the farms in PA. As you saw from earlier post the house and barns were victims of two arsons in 2018. The wooden addition that was built in 1906 perished in the fire along with some other barns and outbuildings. We were lucky to receive an arial photo of the farm back in the 1930’s. The photo shows what a large prosperous dairy farm it was in its heyday. This past month we have continued to remove plaster and wallpaper ruined by fire and smoke damage. We still have a LONG way to go but it’s moving in the right direction. I am posting a few photos of the inside. If you have visited Sandy Creek during the Christmas season you may recognize the faces in the pictures.
