Squirrel Lane Trail: Lon's Balk

Lon's Balk is one of several sites named after workers at the Estate

NPS/Sucena

As you walk along the road, notice the stand of trees on your right and the field beyond. This wooded space was called Lon’s Balk, named after London Edwards. Throughout the site, many other places retain the names of the men who labored here: Jeames’ Ground, Uncle Steve’s Garden, and Red’s Orchard. 

In the 19th century, Squirrel Lane became part of the preferred approach to the Old Mastic House. Cornelia Floyd Nichols remembered this approach fondly, “Perched high in the light wagon with pungent horse blankets tucked around us for warmth, we jogged the three miles homeward on a narrow woods road. Past the little Indian reservation of Poospattuck…through the spring mudpuddles of 'Oak Arch', into Squirrel Lane and up the little rise onto the lawn. Carriage wheel marks were so soon lived down by its soft deep clover that it was the custom to drive right across the green to the piazza.”