Our story · agricultural history
The farmerettes who worked Longwood land
During World War I, at least six women trained for agricultural work lived and worked on the Longwood estate.
Chapter 01
Six women on an estate farm
Longwood Gardens recounts how the Women’s Land Army of America organized women for agricultural work during World War I, when many male farm workers had left for service. At least six “farmerettes” lived and worked on Longwood property. This is a small, place-specific glimpse into the labor behind a landscape now known for its gardens.
Chapter 02
A workmen’s house becomes a home base
The institution says the Workmen’s House was built in 1917 to house estate laborers before it later hosted the farmerettes. That detail keeps the story grounded in work and housing: the women entered a property whose everyday operations already depended on people living and laboring there.
Chapter 03
A glimpse, with its limits
Longwood’s account says Mary Geiger Peirce later described the work as hard. It adds that the group may have worked at a milk-producing creamery on the former Merrick Farm. “May have” matters here: the account offers a possibility, not a confirmed job assignment. These fragments do not speak for every woman or every farm worker.
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Longwood Gardens says at least six Women’s Land Army of America farmerettes lived and worked on Longwood property during World War I.
Qualified · 2026-10-02Longwood Gardens dates the Workmen’s House to 1917 and says it housed estate laborers before the farmerettes.
Verified · 2026-10-02Longwood Gardens recounts that Mary Geiger Peirce later described the farm work as hard, drawing on a 1921 newspaper account.
Qualified · 2026-10-02Longwood Gardens says the farmerettes may have worked at the milk-producing creamery on the former Merrick Farm.
Qualified · 2026-10-02