Tilley Pond
History & Background
There was little to show of Darien’s agricultural tradition by the time the most remarkable farm in its history was created right in the middle of town during the early 1900s.
Tilley’s Bird Farm wasn’t your traditional cows-and-cabbage kind of farm, however. It became a world-famous exotic bird farm that catered to a wealthy clientele and zoos and sold “…everything in the bird line from canary to ostrich,” according to one New York newspaper.
Its genial proprietor, George Dudley Tilley, was a delicate boy who had a passion for birds. His family moved to Darien, and in 1895, when George was just 14, he made his first sale: a pair of silver pheasants.
Before the outbreak of World War I, advertisements for exotic birds from Tilley’s Bird Farm began to appear regularly in national magazines. As his international list of clients expanded, so did his knowledge. Tilley’s birds populated Rockefeller estates, won blue ribbons at national bird shows and held places of honor at zoos.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Tilley’s Bird Farm grew to 16-acres and offered an inventory that included nearly 3,000 birds, avian books and prints, and specially formulated feeds for rare exotics like Tilley’s Pigeon Feed or Tilley’s Waterfowl Grit.
Eventually, World War II and a changing market took a toll on the farm, and when Tilley died in 1946, the farm was closed for good. In 1971, the Town of Darien purchased 8.7 acres of the original farm and today, the pond in this public park is a reminder of the remarkable Tilley’s Bird Farm.
Based on The Story of Darien Connecticut
by Museum of Darien Historian Ken Reiss
Photograph by Katherine Calderwood – Calderwood Photography
Trail Marker
Click to enlarge
