Montgomery Place Orchards

Montgomery Place Orchards. . , Experience an Unbroken Tradition , The Montgomery Place Orchards farm stand has a long lineage. Janet Livingston Montgomery first created the Montgomery Place estate on nearby River Road two centuries ago. When this widow of Revolutionary War hero General Richard Montgomery purchased more than 200 acres of farmland in 1802, there were already apple orchards there. Janet propagated an amazing variety of fruit trees on her land. Farmers throughout the Hudson Valley bought thousands of young fruit trees from her commercial nursery., The Livingstons continued to cultivate orchards at Montgomery Place throughout the 19th century. In the early 20th century, the estate's new owners, the Delafields, added acreage to the farm. In the 1950s, John Ross supplied apples in bulk to supermarkets and other purchasers. He hired many local people as well as migrant workers from the south to work in and manage the orchards. Later, workers came from Jamaica and lived in a camp on the property., In the 1920s, city residents began taking day-trips in cars in order to enjoy rural scenery in places like Dutchess County, and took pleasure in buying fresh produce directly from farmers along the road. Local residents, too, shopped and socialized with neighbors at roadside stands. Montgomery Place Orchards began selling produce out of a truck on Route 9G in the 1940s. Violetta White Delafield had been interested in improving the appearance of farm stands as early as the 1930s, when a broader movement to beautify roadsides for passing motorists was in vogue. She designed a model for a wayside stand and displayed it at the Dutchess County Fair in 1935. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, in her nationally syndicated newspaper column "My Day," mentioned seeing the stand on display as part of a rural arts fair in Washington, D.C., in 1937. That structure was incorporated into the 9G sales venue around 1958, and is still part of this farm stand today. It is the section with the bay window., For more information about Montgomery Place, visit bard.edu/montgomery place, [Captions:] , These photos show two views of the wayside stand. At left is the stand as displayed at the Dutchess County Fair in 1935, hung with gourds and decorative items. At right is the stand in the 1950s when it was put into active use for selling Montgomery Place apples and other produce., An 1812 Poughkeepsie newspaper announced the great variety of fruit trees offered for sale by Janet Livingston Montgomery's nursery business. Scottish immigrant James McWilliam ran the nursery. Today, Montgomery Place Orchards grows some of the same apple varieties listed in this detail from the ad. Courtesy of the Dutchess County Historical Society., Local residents work in the apple orchards of Montgomery Place in this photograph from the 1940s.