Conservationists' Fingers Crossed Shyamalan Preserves Willistown Farm

WILLISTOWN, PA —Residents in Willistown Township are relieved that famed movie director M. Night Shyamalan purchased the 218-acre Kirkwood Farm, and hope reports that he intends to preserve the farm as open space come true, the president of a preservationist group said this week.

“We are really excited about the prospect of this land not going to a developer,” Kate Etherington, president of the Willistown Conservation Trust, said. “It’s a gem. We are thrilled with the outcome.”

Etherington said the next step in preserving the land would be for the new owner to obtain a conservation easement, a legal document that protects the property from development and provides the owner with financial benefits.

The property was sold to Shyamalan, a writer and director of The Sixth Sense and Knock at the Cabin, by descendants of the oil magnate, William Rockefeller Jr., for $24 million on March 16, according to records. The property is located on Providence Road, southeast of Goshen Road.

Real estate agents said that both the seller and the buyer agreed to preserve the land from development.

In February, Etherington alerted the community in a letter that the trust was working to develop a plan to save the farm.

Willistown is a township with a population of 11,184. It is located in the Great Valley School District.

The trust protects estates and farms on 28,000 acres encompassing the Crum, Ridley, and Darby Creek watersheds in Willstown, Easttown, East Goshen, and Edgemont townships.

"Willistown has a long history of people protecting the environment,” Etherington said.

“We hope that there will be a conservation easement,” she continued, noting the trust has an estimated 90 properties under conservation easements.

The conservation easement is recorded on the land title, future owners are bound by the terms of the easement.

The Kirkwood Farm was occupied as early as the late 1700s and includes five historic farmhouses ranging in size from 1,750 to 2,900 square feet and two barns.

The trust owns the nearby Kirkwood Preserve, 83 acres of grassland, adjacent to the farm.

The preserve contains pedestrian and equestrian trails, a half-mile stretch of Crum Creek, approximately 21 acres of wetlands, and 1.5 acres of upland and riparian woodland.