Manicured gardens and green lawns, historic stone archways, and a rustic greenhouse spread across 68 picturesque acres in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, US, create the backdrop for the 1825 farmhouse that was the home of Pulitzer prize-winning author Pearl S Buck for 40 years.
The author may have spent a great deal of her life in China, but this home, located in the bucolic countryside near the suburbs of Philadelphia, is where her heart was. It was here that she wrote each day, gardened and raised her family. Fifty-one years after her death, the home—earlier called Green Hill Farm—is now a popular literary tourist site, with fans travelling here to discover Buck’s legacy. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1980.
“This house, which she purchased in 1933 and where she lived until she moved to Danby, Vermont, in the late 1960s is where she focused on her writing and issues such as immigration and adoption,” says the guide.
The three-storeyed home was constructed around 1875 and is an example of 19th-century Pennsylvanian architecture, constructed of coursed fieldstone. “Four bays wide and two bays deep, the 19th-century farmstead showcases two gable dormer windows on the front and rear side of the roof,” the guide says.
The large library, where Buck would sit for hours at a hand-carved Chinese hardwood desk lit by two lamps—for which two Pennsylvania jugs serve as the bases—is one of the biggest attractions. The artefacts around the rooms include her typewriter and a closet full of board games the family played.