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Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Louis Bromfield was a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of the most celebrated American authors. Yet today, most people remember Bromfield’s friends, like Ernest Hemingway, as authors and Bromfield is instead remembered for his dream-made-reality: Malabar Farm. In 1939, Bromfield returned to his native Ohio and constructed Malabar Farm in Pleasant Valley. Bromfield planned for his new 32-room home, barn, and various outbuildings to be a testing ground for the many sustainable farming practices he had been unable to test at his previous home in France. However Bromfield only lived at Malabar for 16 years. In 1956, he unexpectedly passed away from cancer and the property was sold to a local organization. Today, Malabar Farm is an Ohio State Park that offers tours of the Bromfield house and is home to livestock in the main barn.

View of Malabar Farm. The "Big House" is to the left and the main barn is to the right.

In a lush green valley resides a handful of white buildings with dark green metal roofs.

Louis Bromfield in Malabar office surrounded by his many beloved dogs.

Black and white photograph featuring a man sitting at a desk in the center of the image and four large dogs sleeping around his feet.

View of Pleasant Valley and Malabar Farm from atop Mt. Jeez.

Fall scene with a bench in the foreground overlooking a large valley under a cloudy sky. The white and green buildings of Malabar Farm can be seen far off in the distance.

Only known image of Louis Bromfield (on the right) with Malabar architect Louis Lamoreaux (to the left) c. 1940.

Black and white photo of two men standing on the front porch of a house with a dog to the right running away.

View of the Big House under construction c. 1940.

Black and white photo of a large white house surrounded by scaffolding. Four old cars are parked outside and no glass windows are in the house yet.

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart cut their wedding cake in the Malabar Farm dining room as Louis Bromfield observes.

Black and white photo of two men and a woman. The woman is cutting the wedding cake in the center of the table while the two men observe her to the left.

A selection of some of Bromfield's many works of fiction and nonfiction.

25 colorful book covers written by Bromfield.

On December 27, 1896, Louis Bromfield was born in Mansfield, OH. Although he longed to be a farmer in the tradition of his father and grandfather, Bromfield’s mother insisted he strive to be more. During WWI, Bromfield drove a U.S. ambulance in France and upon his return to the U.S. he became a journalist in New York City. While in NYC, Bromfield married his wife, Mary Appleton Wood, the daughter of a prominent New England family. However, Bromfield was discontent with his life as a journalist in NYC and decided to move his family to Senlis, France. 

Bromfield’s tenure in France introduced him into the ranks of the “Lost Generation” -- a loosely associated group of American authors who lived and worked in Paris in the decades between the two world wars. Bromfield was a prolific author, penning 34 books during his 33 year career. In 1927, Bromfield’s third novel, Early Autumn (1926), won the Pulitzer Prize and by the 1930s, he was regularly working on film scripts for Hollywood. One of Bromfield’s most well known novels was The Rains Came (1937), and in 1939, he adapted it into a successful film. The Rains Came also served as the inspiration for the Malabar Farm name. Bromfield set his novel along the Malabar Coast in soutwestern India, a spot he had visited during his travels in the 1930s. Finally, after thirteen years in France, Bromfield heeded the warnings of impending war in Europe and moved his family back to Ohio. 

In Ohio, Bromfield purchased three farms nestled in Pleasant Valley and combined them into one: Malabar Farm. Using a small farmhouse on the property as a base, Bromfield and his local architect, Louis Lamoreux, expanded the structure to include 32 rooms. The Bromfields soon began referring to their home as “The Big House”, a fitting name it still holds today. Bromfield loved the idea of tradition and he wanted his new home to appear to have grown over the course of a century rather than the mere two years it took to build. To create this illusion, Lamoreux incorporated different elements of Western Reserve and Greek Revival architecture. The interior of the home included French decor and was spacious enough to house Bromfield’s three daughters -- Anne, Hope, and Ellen -- as well as his manager George Hawkins and many guests. Over the years, Bromfield entertained countless Hollywood stars. When Joan Fontaine visited, she assisted with the birth of a calf while Key France once visited and stirred apple butter in a churn. Most famously, Humphrey Bogart and Laruen Bacall were married in the Big House at Malabar. 

Malabar was Bromfield’s attempt to show the world that run-down land could be restored with inventive farming practices such as crop rotation, diversification, and organic farming. He was a conservationist well ahead of his time. In his lifetime, he invested much of his money from his novels and films into running the farm. However, after Bromfield’s beloved manager, George Hawkins, and his wife passed away, he struggled to maintain the farm and a positive spirit. On March 18, 1956, Louis Bromfield died at age 59 after a secret year-long struggle with bone marrow cancer. Bromfield left Malabar Farm nearly bankrupt and the property was at risk of being developed until a group of local businessmen and Hollywood stars created “The Friends of the Land” to purchase Malabar. After this group disbanded, the Nobel Foundation purchased the estate until they too bankrupted the property. The State of Ohio finally stepped in and turned the farm into a state park in 1976. Today, the 715 acre park serves as a museum, home for livestock, and a place for hikers to traverse multiple trails.

Bongartz, Roy. "Malabar Farm: Louis Bromfield's Paradise Lost". The New York Times. May 19, 1974. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/05/19/archives/malabar-farm-louis-bromfields-paradise-lost-aim-of-the-experiment.html

Bromfield, Louis. Pleasant Valley. 4th ed. Wooster: Wooster Book Co., 2008.

"Historical Timeline". Malabar Farm Ohio State Park. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://www.malabarfarm.org/history/historical-timeline

"Malabar Farm State Park". Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://ohiodnr.gov/wps/portal/gov/odnr/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/malabar-farm-state-park

McKee, Timothy Brian. "The Big House at Malabar Farm: in time, history, concept and design". Richland Source. April 22, 2017. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://www.richlandsource.com/area_history/the-big-house-at-malabar-farm-in-time-history-concept-and-design/article_dcefad88-252b-11e7-87b5-b34a383cee10.html

Image Sources(Click to expand)

https://www.destinationmansfield.com/venue/malabar-farm-state-park-2/

https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll36/id/13005/rec/3

https://www.destinationmansfield.com/venue/malabar-farm-state-park-2/

https://www.richlandsource.com/area_history/the-big-house-at-malabar-farm-in-time-history-concept-and-design/article_dcefad88-252b-11e7-87b5-b34a383cee10.html

https://www.richlandsource.com/area_history/the-big-house-at-malabar-farm-in-time-history-concept-and-design/article_dcefad88-252b-11e7-87b5-b34a383cee10.html

https://www.vogue.com/article/lauren-bacall-and-humphrey-bogart-ohio-wedding

https://richlandcountyhistory.com/2020/03/28/saving-the-trees-at-malabar-farm-1957/