Farmstead Park on Byberry Road won a county design award in 2025, and its 1750s farmhouse is still waiting on grant money. Upper Moreland Township owns four stone structures there: a farmhouse, a barn, a carriage house and a springhouse. The land around them has already been rebuilt and recognized. The buildings are still being worked on, piece by piece, and the events on this fall's calendar are held right beside them.
The park sits at 2668 Byberry Road. The mailing address says Hatboro, but the property is in Upper Moreland Township, just outside the Hatboro line. The township bought it in 2002. The deed history goes back much further. William Penn deeded the land to Dr. Nicholas More in the 1680s, and the Farmstead Alliance writes that it may be the last parcel of the original 25-square-mile Manor of Moreland held by More's descendants. One line in the Alliance's chain of title records a 1944 couple who owned the property for one day.
The back five acres went first
The finished part of the park is the part with no buildings on it. According to Montgomery County's write-up of its 2025 Montgomery Award, the rear five acres were once inaccessible and overrun with invasive species. Upper Moreland Township and the Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust rebuilt them together. The site is low-lying with a high water table, and it used to flood. Instead of fighting that, the design reshaped the ground into curving mounds and swales that slow stormwater and help it soak in. A wildflower meadow was planted on a custom soil blend.
The county reported that the meadow was well established after one and a half growing seasons. Wildlife has returned, and a new fully accessible path now winds through the restored area. Volunteers from local schools, environmental clubs and neighborhood groups pulled invasive plants and did the planting. The township and the trust also set up a reforesters program that trains residents to track tree health with a mobile app. The same write-up mentions fly-fishing workshops, a pollinator-friendly maintenance plan that township staff now follow, and bluebird nesting boxes put up with help from an Eagle Scout.
The Montgomery County Planning Commission's list of 2025 award recipients cites Farmstead Park for sustainable site design, community engagement and adaptive historic preservation. The county is careful on that last point. It says restoration of the historic buildings is ongoing, with plans to open them for tours and events in the future. Farmstead Park is one of 19 parks in the township.
Four buildings, four different stages
The buildings are the reason the park is called Farmstead. The Farmstead Alliance calls them one of the few nearly complete 18th-century farmsteads left in the area. They were neglected from the early 1980s up to about 2000 because of deferred maintenance, so the Alliance's current work is mostly stabilization and planning for future use. Each building is at a different point.
| Building | What it is | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Farmhouse | German Continental plan from the 1750s, with an addition from the 1770s | Alliance seeking grants to reconstruct it, per March 2026 township minutes |
| Barn | Hybrid Pennsylvania Dutch bank barn with visible wood joinery and wedding marks | New roof installed to protect the interior |
| Carriage house | An 18th-century "garage" with rough-hewn timbers still visible | Part of the Alliance's stabilization work |
| Springhouse | Original stone walls, uncovered when a later cottage came down in summer 2023 | Foundation stabilization under way; restoration headed to public bid |
The county's description says the springhouse is meant to be restored as a water feature, and the barn and farmhouse could host educational and cultural programs. None of that has opened yet. At the moment, the main time the public gets close to these buildings is during an event.
How the springhouse got this far
The springhouse is the project furthest along, and township records show how slowly this kind of restoration moves:
- Summer 2023. The Alliance removes a later cottage and exposes the original springhouse walls, then starts raising money to rebuild.
- April 21, 2025. Parks and Recreation minutes note that Mark B. Thompson Associates will begin drafting plans for the springhouse restoration.
- July 7, 2025. The Board of Commissioners authorizes advertising bids for the restoration.
- April 2026. Citizen Portal reported that the Alliance had hired a stonemason to stabilize the foundation, with carpentry stabilization also under way. Capping the structure by the end of May was described as an optimistic goal.
- September 2026. The Alliance's president told a township committee about recent cleanup at the springhouse and said its restoration would go out to public bid, according to Citizen Portal.
Three years after the walls were uncovered, the springhouse is still waiting on a contractor. That pace explains why the events matter so much here.
October 24: stories at five, then the buildings
The 5th Annual Historical Haunts at the Farmstead is on Saturday, October 24, from 3 to 7 p.m. If it rains, it moves to Sunday, October 25, same hours. The Upper Moreland Historical Commission hosts it. It is free and open to all ages, with free light refreshments and free parking. Vendors set up at 3 p.m., scary stories start at 5, and the evening ends with self-guided tours of the buildings, which the listing calls "the very haunted establishment." Expect fire pits and food trucks too.
For most of the year you can walk the meadow path but not go inside the 1750s farmhouse. Historical Haunts is one of the few times the public can see the interiors. The event listing still gives the location as "Friends of Boileau Farmstead," the Alliance's old name. The group formed in 2004 to preserve and rehabilitate the farmstead. If you're arriving around 3, the meadow and the accessible path are worth a walk before it gets dark.
November 7: the farmhouse as backdrop
Two weeks later, the farmhouse is the backdrop instead of the destination. Farmstead Family Holiday Mini Sessions run Saturday, November 7, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Farmhouse, with November 8 as the rain date. The Farmstead Alliance and Upper Moreland Parks and Recreation run them together, and Santa is available for photos if you want him. The township's program calendar also says dogs are welcome. Sign up through the township's recreation portal, which has the session details.
The joint billing reflects how the place runs. The township owns the land and handles recreation. The Alliance raises money for the buildings and runs events that bring people to them.
What the calendar is paying for
The biggest fundraiser of the season has already happened. Farmstead on Tap ran on Saturday, October 3, from 2 to 6 p.m. Ahead of the event, the Alliance's president told township officials that about 50 vendors would be on the property, along with food trucks, beer vendors, raffles and nonprofit tables. Proceeds go to the Alliance's restoration work, Citizen Portal reported.
Since it incorporated, the Alliance says it has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the four structures, each with its own problems. The next phase is bigger. Upper Moreland's March 16, 2026 committee minutes list the Alliance's current work. It includes stabilizing the springhouse, seeking grants to reconstruct the farmhouse, revising the park's 2005 master plan, and pursuing National Register status. The county notes that the state has already recommended the site for the National Register of Historic Places.
So far there's a meadow that won an award, a barn with a new roof, springhouse walls getting a stonemason's attention, and a farmhouse waiting on grants. The 2005 plan is being rewritten around that progress. The goal the county describes, buildings open for tours and programs, depends on the next few steps.
The Alliance takes volunteers, and its mailing list is the easiest way to hear about future dates. Both are on the Farmstead Alliance website.
If you have questions about Farmstead Park, Willow Grove or the parts of Upper Moreland around it, the DeSantis Real Estate Team is always happy to talk. Contact Us anytime.
