Keystone College is partnering with the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust to sponsor to two events promoting the historic Dennis Farm in Hop Bottom, Susquehanna County.
Keystone will sponsor a guided tour of the historic 153-acre farm on Thursday, Sept. 18 from 3-5 p.m. The tour, which is open to the public and free of charge, will be conducted by Keystone students. For more information, or to make reservations, please contact heather.schield@keystone.edu.
Keystone will also sponsor the Dennis Farm Symposium and Field Tour on Wednesday, Oct. 8. The day will begin with a social gathering at 10:30 a.m. in the Theatre In Brooks followed by symposium presentations from 11:30-12:30 p.m. There will be a luncheon and keynote presentation exploring Dennis Farm’s historical and cultural significance from 12:30-2 p.m. Presenters for the events include M. Denise Dennis, president and CEO of The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust; Wade Catts, associate director of cultural resources with the historical preservation firm John Milner Associates; and Penn State University landscape architecture student Amanda Clerkin. The symposium will be followed by a dedication and outdoor field tour at Dennis Farm at 2:30 p.m. The day’s event are co-sponsored by Cabot Oil and Gas. Online Registration for this Event.
Established in 2001, the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust preserves one of Susquehanna County’s rarest and most beautiful resources. The 153-acre farm was originally settled by the family of Prince Perkins, free African Americans who emigrated to Northeastern Pennsylvania from Connecticut in 1793 following the American Revolution. Their descendants, the Perkins-Dennis family, have retained ownership of the property to the present day, although it hasn’t been a working farm since the early twentieth century.
The site includes the Perkins-Dennis Cemetery, where family members, including two veterans of the Revolutionary War, are buried; the Prince Perkins Archaeological Site; an elaborate series of stone walls built during the nineteenth century; the farmhouse and complex; and books and hand-written documents and artifacts dating back to the early nineteenth century. The history of the farm and the Perkins-Dennis family are fully documented.
In 2001, family members M. Denise Dennis and her great-aunt, Hope Dennis, established the Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust to preserve their ancestral home. M. Denise Dennis, an author and journalist, is currently writing a book that tells the story of Dennis Farm. The Keystone symposium and tours are designed to call attention to the importance of Dennis Farm as a treasured regional, state, and national heritage asset.
