TwentyOne
BirdhillRd

A Short History:

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At the turn of the century, there was a beautiful 492 acre farm called The Mott Farm, belonging to Mrs. Laura P.Wood. She was a member of the Tomkins family. Its small lake was named Echo Lake. The Mott Farm consisted of the farm house built around 1840,and several other buildings among them the largest barn in N.Y. State. The barn rose four stories high above what is now the storage field at the entrance.

 

The farm ran along Bird Hill Road, which was actually a part of the origin al King's Highway, dating back to the 1600's when New Amsterdam had become New York and James 11 of England wanted two roads running both sides of the Hudson from New York to Montreal. There was also an Ice House (still standing), a milk house, and a chicken coop, numerous apple orchards, asparagus beds, vineyards, cows, sheep, etc. In 1907, this entire property was bought by Charles Fowler, founder and merchant of an international multi­ million dollar cod-liver oil company -Scott's Emulsion(many can remember the bottle with a fisherman wearing a SO'Wester and a cod fish hanging down his back. Charles Fowler turned the farm into a gentleman's estate by adding a new entrance and building a wooden chalet on top of a stone foundation. He renamed the estate "Dunderberg Farm". Unfortunately, this chalet was struck by lightning around 1912 and burned to the ground.

 

In 1914 Fowler,undaunted, built a second house, this time entirely of stone. He also added another tremendous stone home now the chauffer'quarters(21 Birdhill). Misfortune struck again on Christmas Eve 1928 when either the boiler or the apple jack still (there were many apples here and it was Prohibition) blew up and the second house burned down to the ground and only the stones remained standing. He retired to The Plaza Hotel in New York City. In 1940 his widow sold 16 acres, the stone houses and the entire east side of the lake to Everett Edwards, an English tea importer. She almost sold the remaining property to 1. Charlie Chaplin and 2. St. Patrick's Cathedral for a retreat house.