History of the Farm

The house is in its original location as the water shown is a storage/drainage canal.  At the turn of the century, Richmond farmers began constructing dykes along the river to protect their farms and drain accumulated water through flood gates at low tide.  

In June and December each year, there was a 2-3 week period of extremely high tides when the river level was too high to utilize the flood gates.  Large ponds were dug out to accumulate the water and the fill was used to make the dykes.  The bottom right hand corner shows posts holding the fill which became the dyke.

Note the water tower at the back end of the house.  A pipe connected the eaves trough to the water tower to accumulate water.  With Richmond below sea level and tidal pressures pushing sea water up the river, ground wells could not be used as salt water would seep into them.  The water tower also gave the farm house some running water.

The small house at the back was the original house the London brothers built when they first began to farm.  The back half of the London Farm house was built around 1888 and the front half 8 years later.  The small house at the rear was retained and used either for a summer kitchen for canning or to house farm help at time of harvest.  The London's main crop was potatoes.

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