Finley Family Farm

The Finley Farm House was on Drury Lane in Little Britain, NY. It consisted of three floors, 23 rooms. The house was originally built by Jonathan Parshall when he purchased an estate of 607 acres and Little Britain and settled there with his wife Elizabeth Booth Parshall in 1737. Drury Lane was originally known as Parshall Lane. On the death of his grandson, Moses Parshall, the house passed on to his son-in-law, Dr. John W. Drury and his wife, Jemima Parshall Drury. John and Jemima had built another house about a half mile from the Parshall House on the Parshall Tract. It was at this time that Parshall Lane became Drury Lane. They sold the Parshall House to Robert Finley when he married their daughter, Mary Ann Drury, on October 18, 1848. As a result, the home never left the Parshall Family. The home, barns and 165 acres of the original 607 was owned by Robert Sears Finley, grandson of Robert Finley and Mary Ann Drury, and his wife Dorothy in 1970 when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of NYC purchased it along with about 3000 additional acres of Little Britain to expand Stewart Airport. The Finley Home, in our family since 1737, was destroyed along with countless others, many with a history as long as the Finley Home. All traces of the house are gone, but one can still travel across Drury Lane and see where the house sat and the ancient trees which surrounded it. Today, 30 years later, the airport has NOT been expanded and there are no plans to do so in the future!!

The pictures below appeared in a newspaper article in 1967 so the picture was taken about 1917. The left side picture is the west side of the house.

The picture below was taken in 1936 and shows the South Side (Front of House)

The following picture was taken on July 5, 1948. The gentleman and lady in the picture are Robert (Bert) Finley and Dorothy Titus Finley. Bert was born in the house behind him, Dorothy moved in when they married in 1914 and the couple lived there until the house was destroyed in 1970. You will see this house in the background in many family photos on following pages.

Created September 4, 2000