The "Clare Point Stock Farm" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading and trying to visualize what at one time must have been one of the grandest farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  It was in 1897 that Thomas Willson of Reading decided to retire.  He purchased a farm along the meandering Cocalico Creek just north of the borough of Ephrata, Pennsylvania which is about 15 miles from the city of Lancaster.  

This 1910 view of Clare Point Farm shows the two original farmhouses and the barn Thomas Willson built upon purchasing the property.

Here he would breed and train some of the finest racehorses of the time.  He named the farm Clare Point Stock Farm.  It included a half-mile racetrack with a judge's stand.  It also had a dam and mill that was converted from a grist mill to a power mill to create electricity for the farm. 

The Quarter Mile Winter Race Track and Ring Barn

Two of the original buildings on the farm were farmhouses dating from 1753 and 1783.  Mr. Willson added a man-made pond to the farm and had it stocked with 1,300 brook trout purchased from Carbon County, Pennsylvania.  I found a story in the Lancaster New Era from April 24, 1900 telling of his purchase of the 1,300 brook trout.

The fishpond and dam

 Mr. Willson also purchased Ye Village Inn which was a roadside tavern situated along Main Street in Ephrata.  The Inn was built in 1777 and Mr. Willson had it renovated into a 17 room inn in 1901.  When Mr. Willson died in 1909, the farm remained a summer residence for his widow until she sold it to George B. Willson who at the time was the owner of James Buchanan's Wheatland home and property.  Then in 1914, Mr. George Willson  sold the farm to the Redemptionist Order of the Catholic Church. At the time the farm consisted of 81 acres including a mansion house, (which cost $50,000 to build) four houses, two barns, and two quarter-mile horse tracks.  The Church renamed the farm St. Clements and opened a school on the property.  The first Mass was offered in what was formerly the Willson family dining room the day after the estate purchased it on August 6, 1914.  Only 13 Catholics were present, none of which lived in Ephrata.  Today, the property is now the site of Our Mother Of Perpetual Help Church where my nephew was married and he and his wife's first child was baptized.  Amazing property with a remarkable history.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This old photograph shows what is marked as the Lodge.  I was unable to find out
any information about what the Lodge was or where it was located on the property.

This is the meadow of the farm.

This is the Cocalico Creek at the rear of the photograph.

The judge's stand at the race track.

The mansion on the farm.  My brother painted this entire building a few summer's ago.