Hopkins Farm - Pittsford, (Monroe County) NY - Century Farms on Waymarking.com

This homestead is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a farm. It has historical significance architecturally, and because Caleb Hopkins was an important contributor to the history of this region. The farm has evolved with changing farming techniques, and also with changing demands of the ecomony. It has served as a subsistance farm, with orchards, sheep, swine, and poultry. It served as a wheat farm when western New York was the breadbasket of the nation at the height of Erie Canal operations. They grew cabbages and potatos. They maintained as many as 60 dairy cows, and breed horses, growing corn for the cows and oats for the horses. Today, they grow a variety of seed stock and produce.

The circa 1815 Hopkins house is a two-and-one-half-story, gable roof, hewn timber frame house built in a vernacular variation of the Federal style.

Over 200 years, there were essentially only 4 geneartions. The farm passed from father to youngest son three times. Caleb Hopkins has a daughter and two sons, the daughter ans oldest son died young. Younges son Marvin lived to the age of 62, his youngest son Jared being only 10 when he died in 1867. Jaren eventually assumed management of the farm. He married Lettie Maie Nye, which is how part of the Nye farm came to be annexed to the Hopkins farm. Jared and Lettie Maie had four children, and Jaret until 1950. All the Hopkins' participated in local civic life and in politics, Jared serving in the New York State Assembly in 1911. Phelps Hopkins, the younger of Jared's two sons took over the management of the homestead after his older brother Irving purchased the Thornell farm and began managing his own dairy operation in 1933. Phelps' oldest son John received a farmer's exemption from military duty during WWII, but had to abandon his studies at Cornell University because the institution closed down during the war. John's nephew Mark Greene joined the farming operation in 1977.

In the 1980s and 1990s, suburban sprawl and development threatened traditional farming with escalating property taxes to pay for the necessary infrastructure of suburban development: sewer, water, road, schools, fire protection. In the 80's the Town of Pittsford responded with zoning changes, but by the 90's it was evident that this was not enough to slow down development. They began buying the develpment rights from farmers, leaving ownership in tact, making Pittsford the first town in Western New York to protect open space through a program of buying development rights. Hopkins farm now works 500 leased acres in addition to the 330 tillable acres owned.

Physical Marker: no Additional Years of Recognition: 150+ years Century Farm Website: [Web Link] Retail Sales to the Public: no Farm-fresh Products: Not listed

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