280 Phillips Road

Properties | 280 Phillips Road

The Brucker Homestead

Ludwig and Karolina Brucker bought this farm in 1884 with 55 acres.  Their son Charles married Anna Keller in 1903 and they had three children – Carl, Mildred, and Margaret.  Charles bought adjacent land that brought the homestead to 93 acres.  He promised Anna to build a barn first and a home in ten years.  Built in 1912, part of the foundation was saved from Charles’ parents’ house.  It was built with hollow clay tiles with cement and stucco on the outside, and cement on the inside walls.  The four-bedroom house has chestnut molding throughout and the replaced windows have been replicated to look like the original.

Son Carl Brucker remained on the farm and married Wilma McKay in 1944.  They had four children – Carol Anne, Phyllis, Charles, and Cathleen.  The Bruckers raised pigs, chickens, and cows.  They grew fruit including strawberries, gooseberries, cherries, peaches, apples, and quince.  The Brucker homestead became a favorite place to tour, and the barn where Carl kept his old farm tools was often referred to as “Carl Brucker’s Museum.”  An inventor, his henhouse was the first to be automated in New York.