Flewellyn Park

Today I took a walk through the snow in Flewellyn Park. Some of you may not know where the park got its name. Formerly the site of a stately Victorian house, the park was owned by Laura Flewellyn, a well-known and beloved schoolteacher. In St. Mark's Church: A History, Helena Rutherfurd Meade writes the following of Miss Flewellyn:

"Miss Laura Flewellyn was one of the finest teachers in the local school. Her family was Welsh. Four Flewellyn brothers, who were millers, came with their trade and settled near Kirby Pond. There they had their mill and ground the grain of the local landowners. Ultimately that Flewellyn land became Leonard property and is now, of course, Leonard Park. The pond must have been large, for it covered all the flat lands where the tennis courts, etc., are now. Later, the Flewellyns moved to Crow Hill Road, and continued to live there for many years. Crow Hill Road is one of the oldest roads in the area. Revolutionary earth works may still be seen, many of them on the property belonging to Mr. Percy J. Ebbott.

"Miss Flewellyn's grandmother was a Purdy of Purdy's Station, as it was called. She was brought up in the beautiful Purdy house with its great center chimney, truly a house of distinction.

"Miss Purdy married a Flewellyn, had a large family, and named her first son Eisenhart Ezekiel Purdy Flewellyn. So, up on Crow Hill, Miss Flewellyn lived and from there she was confirmed at the age of 13, she thinks by Bishop Henry Godman Potter. To her young eyes, Saint Mark's was a lovely Church with 'our motto' over the Chancel arch. However, on most of her Sundays she could walk to a chapel of Saint Mark's at Kitchawan, called The Chapel of the Good Shepherd ...

"Miss Laura's amusement as a young child was to jump in and out of the Revolutionary entrenchments near the family house. In later years she would walk to the village to watch the baseball games because she wished to see her rector, the Rev. Egisto Chauncey, play. He was, she said, a great athlete and a delightful person ... "

Born in 1882, Miss Flewellyn never married or had children, but worked at the local public school for 62 years. Village historian Oliver Knapp was in her fifth grade class of 1918. When she died at the age of 89, Miss Flewellyn left her property to the village with the stipulation that it must be maintained as a public park. The village, which wanted to turn the property into a parking lot, fought vigorously with the terms of her will. Miss Flewellyn had designated three other potential heirs should the village choose not to accept the property, but stipulated that the heirs could only sell it back to the village for a sum of $800,000. That was more than the village was willing to pay, and so the property became a park.