From Beverly Hills to the Farm

Some background on the Montgomery home in Towners, New York:

Robert Montgomery was one of the celebrity residents of Patterson. The Montgomery family owned a farm in Towners, and had a long affiliation with the Town...

...In March, 1939, Montgomery told Collier's Magazine that his farm in Towners was his refuge from his Hollywood career. The article noted:

"He has a farm in a place called Towners, near Brewster in New York State, and that's his dish... He lives on the farm three months a year and anyone visiting there who mentions the picture business is apt to get slugged. ...He'll be an actor until he dies - Montgomery will. But not in Hollywood. It's too far from Brewster, New York."

Montgomery and Elizabeth Allen were divorced in December, 1950, and Elizabeth continued to reside on the farm. She died in 1992 at the farm, and the property was sold after her death. It had been in the Montgomery family for seven decades. Robert Montgomery remarried four days after the divorce, and he and his wife, the former Elizabeth Grant Harkness, divided their time between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island. He died of cancer in Manhattan in 1981. The farm was purchased by the State of New York in the 1990s, and is now part of Wonder Lake State Park.

Learn more at the Patterson, New York web site.