The Rodale Organic Gardening Experimental Farm, also known as the Working Tree Center, is a historic home and farm located in
Lynn Township,
Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Lehigh County (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Lechaa Kaundi'') is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 374,557. . It is important in the history of
organic gardening and farming in the 20th century.
[ ''Note:'' This includes ]
History
The home on the experimental farm's property is a farmhouse which dates to roughly the year 1830. It was altered by
J. I. Rodale
Jerome Irving Rodale (; August 16, 1898 – June 8, 1971) was a publisher, editor, and author who founded Rodale, Inc. in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and The Rodale Institute, formerly the Soil Health Foundation.
Rodale was an early advocate of sustai ...
(1898-1971) in order to improve the quality of life at his residence and further his work during 1940 to 1971. Also added by Rodale were a farm office and greenhouse (circa 1945), turkey/goose coop, tennis court, cabana and pool, pavilion, and clapboard and fieldstone bake house, as well as five garden sites: the cultivated gardens, the stone gardens, the Sir Albert Howard test plots, and the aerobic and anaerobic
compost heaps. The farm is important in the history of
organic gardening and farming in the 20th century.
[ ''Note:'' This includes ]
Other buildings and structures which pre-dated Rodale's 1940 purchase include: the Pennsylvania
bank barn, implement shed,
corn crib, and
chicken coop.
[ ''Note:'' This includes ]
The property was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1999.
References
External links
Rodale Inc. history
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Buildings and structures in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Organic farming in the United States