The Design of Broadlands Farm

The farmstead complex that Hoagland Gates developed at Broadlands was quite architecturally sophisticated. Its inwardly focused courtyard/barnyard layout differed from the other farms in the area. Hoagland’s background played a role in defining the appearance of Broadlands. His wealth and privilege had provided him with exposure to grand homes and country estates throughout the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic. Although he had abandoned that lifestyle, he had none-the-less developed a refined, if more subdued, architectural taste. On the eastern shore of Maryland and in Chester County, Pennsylvania, he had adopted the life of the gentleman farmer and had visited enough of his neighbors to know how a well-run farm operated and how it should be designed. Unlike his neighbors, Gates had the money to completely reshape his farm as he wished and to use the best materials in the process.

According to Hoagland’s family, he based the design of Broadlands on the farms he had observed in France. However, Broadlands’ courtyard plan may be more directly derived from the dairy farms of the Island of Jersey. Jersey has long been a British possession but its historic ties and proximity to the French mainland have shaped its culture. The name “Broadlands” is, in fact, borrowed from a dairy farm on the island, and Gate’s intent with his new property was to focus on the breeding and care of Jersey Cows.

Probably dating to the 1930s, this view shows the Broadlands buildings from the fields south and east of the farmstead complex. Note the similarities between this view and the view of the original Broadlands Farm on the Island of Jersey.

This image shows the herd of Jersey cows and the farmstead at the original Broadlands Farm on the Island of Jersey. Although the buildings are of stone and the peaked roofs a bit steeper, the visual similarities between this courtyard focused farmstead and the complex that Hoagland Gates created in Maryland are striking.

Following the death of Hoagland Gates in 1943, his family returned to live at Broadlands full time. This aerial photograph of the farmstead appears to have been taken in the late 1940s. It is the earliest image which conveys the full layout of the farmstead complex at Broadlands.

Listen as Anne Gates Copley talks about the old barn at Broadlands.

Listen as Phyllis Copley Machledt talks about Broadlands.