Big Stone Beach: Tales of a Farming Failure, a Conservationist Recluse, and War

 

In many ways Big Stone Beach is like other beach hamlets along the Delaware Bay. There’s a row of houses facing the water, with a road behind them running parallel to the shoreline. The beach is great for beachcombing—there’s supposed to be sea glass along the shore. But the beach gets mucky in the water, so it isn’t great for swimming or walking barefoot. 

But two things here are different. The first is a large tower.

Observation tower at Big Stone Beach

This was an observation tower used during World Wars I and II to watch for enemy ships. It’s the last of five such towers in Delaware. It was used to reinforce Fort Saulsby, which was built near Slaughter Beach for World War I and decommissioned after World War II.  There was indeed once a big stone out in the water, but it was destroyed during World War II. I’ve read two stories about why it was destroyed: either as target practice or out of fear that it would obscure sight of an enemy ship.

Historica; marker for Big Stone Beach observation tower

What’s also unusual about Big Stone Beach are dozens of wooden stumps on the north end of the beach.

Wooden stumps along Big Stone Beach north of Big Stone Beach Road

The story of those wooden stumps began in the early 20^th century, when Franco Greco and his wife Emily moved here from Pennsylvania. (If you click on the hyperlink, scroll down to find the story.) Greco bought thousands of acres of land between Brockonbridge Gut (north of Bennett’s Pier Beach) and the Mispillion River with dreams of establishing a farm and vegetable cannery.

The land included a large house once owned by Charles Polk, governor of Delaware in 1907. The house was somewhere north of Big Stone Beach, probably near Bennett’s Pier Beach—I can’t figure out exactly where. The Grecos moved into the house and established the base of their farm and canning operation there.

The articles I found call Polk’s house Ellerslie, but I don’t think that’s correct. Ellerslie was the name of a mansion in Edgemoor, north of Wilmington, that was best known as the residence of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1920s. It was torn down in the 1960s. [I originally wrote that it was in Edgewood, not Edgemoor, but savvy folks on Facebook corrected me.]

Ellerslie, once in Edgemoor, north of Wilmington

Greco quickly realized he needed to be able to get his canned goods to a port. He had a background in engineering and decided to build a canal from Big Stone Beach to the Mispillion River, about five miles south. (To my untrained eye looking at a map, it would have been faster and easier to build a channel out to the Delaware Bay and build a port there, but I’m not a civil engineer!) The canal is still there, though no longer navigable. It’s marked “Greco Canal” on Google Maps. Ironically, because of sea level rise the canal now flows directly into the Delaware Bay just north of the Mispillion River.

Greco Canal where it crosses Cedar Beach Road west of Big Stone Beach

After completing this remarkable engineering feat in 1910, Greco realized how hard it was to haul his canned goods from his cannery to Big Stone Beach, where the canal began. So he applied to build a drawbridge and extend the canal further north. Authorities said no. Between that and the declining price of canned goods, Greco gave up his dream, shut down the cannery in 1915, and moved with his family somewhere on Cedar Beach Road, which runs between Milford and Slaughter Beach.

Frank Greco and his daughter Filomena in 1912 (Source: MilfordLive.com)

Fast forward to 1923, when Greco, his wife Emily, and their 12-year-old daughter Filomena accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms. Because of their religious beliefs, Greco and his wife refused medical treatment and died. A neighbor made Filomena drink salt water to induce vomiting and saved her.

Filomena went to live with an aunt in New York City but eventually returned to the farmland that she had inherited. She married a local teacher and in the 1940s they tried unsuccessfully to make a go of the farm. Eventually they separated and Filomena began living as a recluse. The Charles Polk house had burned in 1929, so she lived in a small beach house at Big Stone Beach. I found comments on a blog post on Big Stone Beach that share some memories of her there.

Filomena spent the rest of her life trying to make ends meet by selling hunting rights on her land and leasing lots along Big Stone Beach for beach cottages. The undated photo below from a Delaware Public Archives Facebook post shows the cottages that once lined the beachfront.

Undated photo of Big Stone Beach in its heyday (Source: Delaware Public Archives)

Filomena could have made more money by selling tracts of her land, but she was adamant that she never wanted it developed. Her obituary says she had a lifelong interest in plants and animals. I’d love to know the story of how she evolved from a farmer to a conservationist.

When Filomena died in 1991, she left no heirs and no will. A now-vanished article on MilfordLive.com said the state sold her land to the Delaware Nature Preserve, but there’s no such entity, so I don’t think that’s correct. But whatever entity purchased her land wanted the land to be free of development, so all the people who had been renting land from Filomena for beach cottages were told to vacate or move their homes within five years.

It turned out, however, that the beach cottages south of Big Stone Beach Road sat on land never formally rented from Filomena. The cottage owners claimed squatters’ rights and were able to buy the lots their cottages sat on.  Houses are still there today.

Big Stone Beach south of Big Stone Beach Road

But the cottages on land properly rented from Filomena, north of Big Stone Beach Road, were burned down around the turn of the 21^st century, leaving the stumps you see today. That land is now part of Milford Neck Preserve, owned by Delaware Wild Lands, Inc.

Today the 10,000 acres between the Murderkill and Mispillion Rivers, much of which the Grecos once owned, are called the Milford Neck Conservation Area. In addition to Milford Neck Preserve, the area includes Milford Neck Nature Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy, and Milford Neck Wildlife Area, owned by the State of Delaware. (Yes, I was confused too!) Most of the Milford Neck Conservation Area is closed to the public, except for Milford Neck Wildlife Area, which is open for hunting, hunting dog training, and birding. You’ll need a Conservation Access Pass to park there.

Big Stone Beach has no clearly marked public parking, public beach access, or public restrooms. Signs suggested that visitors aren’t welcome, so we didn’t stay long.

Sign at the end of Big Stone Beach Road

Sign on the road running parallel to the beach 

UPDATE 3/6/2021: Folks in the Delaware History/All Things Delaware Facebook group have been wonderful about filling in more about Filomena's story and Big Stone Beach. Robin Bruner posted the following:

"As the Public Guardian for the State of Delaware I served as court appointed guardian for Filomena when she was deemed incapacitated and unable to manage her person and property. The Court of Chancery apparently became concerned with her care and well-being when several Quiet Title actions were filed. There was serious concern that she could not advocate for her best interests and was at risk of being taken advantage of. Her story and that of her parents could be or would be a great book! I have some interesting information that would shed additional light on her fascinating history and life. I believe that legal issues and decisions related to the settlement of her estate reached the State Supreme Court before being resolved. Having been involved with the sale of about 600 acres of the Greco lands just days before her death, it is my recollection that this parcel was sold to Delaware Wildlands. After her death, the remaining lands were sold to Nature Conservancy and the State of Delaware for preservation. In later years, I drove to Filomena’s “beach” and saw the remaining cottages. I wondered how they were able to keep these homes. She was an eccentric but kind woman. I adored her and I always felt that because of her eccentricities, other issues, her isolation and a naïveté about others and her kind heart that she was ripe for being taken advantage of by designing persons... even prior to the declaration of incapacity. For years she was vulnerable!

"Filomena’s life was full of twist and turns and was very sad, even tragic at times. I picture her sometimes walking her beach alone with her strange musings and thoughts... she was penniless (cash poor) when the Office of Public Guardian became involved - really living on nothing after her trust with a New York City bank had allegedly been exhausted( I was told she, as the only child had inherited an estate valued back then at a million dollars). And, her lack of resources to make ends meet was an issue for her even before we were brought into the picture in 1990. She told me this is one of the reasons she “leased” lots to people for their trailers and small cottages. She was always very evasive when I would try to talk to her about selling her land to get some money to pay for her care... she got really strange. She claimed she couldn’t sell it - that it really wasn’t hers - that it belonged to a “trust of 12 men.” The land was entrusted to her. I am not exactly sure of the facts but I believe that in the 70s she may have been approached by one of the large oil companies about selling some of her land along the shoreline for a lightering( sp?) operation in the bay. She refused to sell! Like I said the stories! I am honored to have known her and become a “friend” of the Court to her. She puzzled, confused and mystified me at times but I was very fond of her."

Bill Betts posted the following: 

"All of the Greco property was north of the main road, and after her death, the people that were more or less homesteading on her benevolence were forced to give up their properties and they were burned or torn down. I have heard stories that people asked her for permission for a lot and she would mark it with her foot. 

"My wife grew up in that area and I worked with a guy who hunted on her land. He would take her chocolate candy, and she had over 100 cats! She was very intelligent and came from a good family, but she was a recluse."

Sue Hudson, meanwhile, had some more information on Ellerslie:

Ellerslie stood right where DuPont's Edgemoor plant main build stands today. The entrance area of the plant office still has some stone work that remains from the mansion."

Thanks to all these great folks for adding to the stories of Filomena, Big Stone Beach, and Ellerslie!