History

Hemlock Farms was originally a magnificent wildlife sanctuary with rolling hills and boundless beauty purchased by the William Brewster Family in 1927.  Over the next few decades the Brewster's purchased other contiguous properties to increase their holdings to over 45oo acres.  In addition, the family built interior roads, the main house, stables, lakes and other amenities for the many family activities.  The Steer Barn was one of the last buildings erected to house the steers he kept on the dairy farm.  Other Brewster buildings included the milking barn, carpenter shop, ice house, garages, staff cottages and guest houses.  The family called the retreat "Camp Hemlock" and did much entertaining over the years with family friends and business associates.

It has been widely reported that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Great Britain's Winston Churchill met at the Brewster estate during World War II.  While Rossevelt and Churchill had many secret meetings and considered each other close friends, the two world leaders corresponded almost on a daily basis during the war and had great mutual admiration for one another.  They had many secret meetings that place on war ships in the middle of the ocean, at secret island locations and at the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park, New York, but there is no documentation they had ever met in the Pocono's.

The Brewster family owned the "George M. Brewster & son, General Contractors" and was involved in huge construction projects in New York and surrounding area, including construction work on the roadbed of the George Washington Bridge, the approaches leading to the Lincoln Tunnel, sections of the New Jersey Turnpike, as well as work on the Scranton/Wilkes Barre International Airport in Avoca.    Locally, the family business built most of Route 402 in Pike County.  The Brewster family knew construction and spared no expense when building Camp Hemlock with native stone and local timbers.  To provide access for his amphibious plane Brewster dredged Hemlock Pond, built the dam and created Lower Lake as it is know today.  When the family business began having problems in the late 50's and early 60's the estate was put on the market.  It didin't take long for Western Heritage Properties Limitied from Ontarion, Canada to purchase the 4500 acre property in January 1963 for $700K.  more

In June 1973, the developers turned over many amenities to the HFCA.  in photo from left to right Home Smith VP, Dick Muti, Home Smith CEO, Ray Tower, HFCA Secy Norm Welton, Atty M. Davis Baker, HFCA Advisor, and HFCA President Shelton Wilshinksy.