In 1683, settlers
Gulian Verplanck and
Francis Rombout bought the 85,000-acre (430 km2) tract, including the farm, from the
Wappinger people for goods worth approximately $1,250. An 1836 subdivision of the property gave a thousand acres (4 km2), including the current farm, to descendant James DeLancy Verplanck of nearby
Beacon. A century later, his descendants donated the farm to the state
Education Department (SED) for use as a teaching farm. It was used for this purpose by
SUNY Farmingdale until the late 1960s, when the college decided it no longer needed the property. In 1973, DEC took it over and converted it to its present use. Stony Kill was added to the
National Register of Historic Places in 1980. ==References==