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Pearl S. Buck House National Historic Landmark facts for kids

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Green Hills Farm
Green Hills w additions BucksCo PA.jpg
Pearl S. Buck House National Historic Landmark is located in Pennsylvania
Pearl S. Buck House National Historic Landmark
Location in Pennsylvania
Pearl S. Buck House National Historic Landmark is located in the United States
Pearl S. Buck House National Historic Landmark
Location in the United States
Nearest city Dublin, Pennsylvania
Built 1933
NRHP reference No. 74001755
Quick facts for kids
Significant dates
Added to NRHP February 27, 1974
Designated NHL January 16, 1980

The Pearl S. Buck House, formerly known as Green Hills Farm, is the 67-acre homestead in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where Nobel-prize-winning American author Pearl Buck lived for 40 years, raising her family, writing, pursuing humanitarian interests, and gardening. She purchased the house in 1933 and lived there until the late 1960s, when she moved to Danby, Vermont. She completed many works while on the farm, including This Proud Heart (1938), The Patriot (1939), Today and Forever (1941), and The Child Who Never Grew (1950). The farm, a National Historic Landmark, is located on Dublin Road southwest of Dublin, Pennsylvania. It is now a museum open to the public.

Overview

The Pearl S. Buck House at Green Hills Farm, an example of 19th century (built 1825) Pennsylvanian architecture, is constructed of coursed fieldstone. It is four bays wide and two deep with the main entrance located in the second bay. Two gable dormers are located on the front and rear slope of the roof. Chimneys are located on each gable end. When Buck purchased the farmstead, she made extensive alterations and additions to the 19th century farmhouse, including a two-story fieldstone wing added to the east gable and two libraries. Today, visitors can tour twelve rooms of the home and visit the pre-Revolutionary War cottage on the property and the barn built in 1827.

In the large library, two Pennsylvania jugs serve as lamp bases upon a hand carved Chinese hardwood desk, at which Buck wrote her breakthrough novel The Good Earth. Buck filled her home with works of original art by Chen Chi and Freeman Elliot , iron works of art produced by exiled artisans in China, Peking Fetti carpets that survived revolutions in China, and some of her own sculptures.

Museum and Tours

The Pearl Buck house is open to the public for daily tours seven days a week. Pearl S. Buck International currently offers two house tours to visitors: Pearl S. Buck: Taking Action, which focuses on Ms. Buck’s activism and human rights advocacy, and the more traditional biographical and historic Pearl S. Buck: Life and Legacy Tour.

National Historic Landmark Designation

The Pearl S. Buck House was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1980 and opened as a museum the same year. Of 90,000 places listed on the country's National Register of Historic Places, approximately 2,500 are recognized as National Historic Landmarks. As of 2018, there were only 300 National Historic Landmarks dedicated to upholding the legacy of a woman. Of that number, the Pearl S. Buck House is one of only 10 with an intact collection.

Approximately 17,000 people visit each year. It sits on over 67 acres of lawns, gardens and ponds.

Pearl S. Buck International

Pearl S. Buck International is the organization that owns and operates the Pearl S. Buck House National Historic Landmark. Pearl S. Buck International is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization founded by writer, activist and humanitarian Pearl Buck. Pearl S. Buck International carries on Ms. Buck’s legacy through intercultural education, the Pearl Buck House museum and tours, and humanitarian aid.

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