The farm itself is almost unique in that it was maintained and lived in under almost the same conditions as it was founded-until 1958 when it was purchased by Alice and Wendell Wicks. Dating from the 1770s, the farm was started by the Zepperer family who emigrated from Germany in 1765. They lived in the original portion of the farm house, now known as the cellar kitchen where meals were prepared on the open hearth. But they soon added a ground floor and bedroom loft as the children started arriving. Their daughter, Catherine, married a "retired" Hessian soldier in 1780, and their family continued to live and farm the property until 1913, when it was sold outside the family. The farmhouse was "modernized" in the 1890s with a parlor and a new kitchen with a wood-burning stove.
When the Wicks purchased the peaceful property in 1958 they intended to develop it as their home. But when they realized that the last resident, Mrs. Thomas Hess, had been living with no plumbing or electricity and that much of the house remained as it had been built in the late 1770s and early 1800s, they decided that the historical and cultural attributes were so rare that they had to restore and preserve it to make it available to the public as a living museum of our heritage. The outbuildings typify those needed by families of the times, and is crowned by the traditional 1850s stone and wooden pegged barn.
After many years of restoration, the Wicks opened the farm to the public as the Quiet Valley Farm Museum in 1963. Since that time, they have added a "granddaddy-cabin," an outdoor bake oven, a smokehouse, an icehouse, and other outbuildings. To provide a more complete experience of the times, they have added a reconstructed 1890s one-room schoolhouse, and they also have an education building and pavilion for outdoor seminars and interpretive activities.
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