Patty Hearst’s uncle, William Randolph Hearst III, purchased the property in the early 1970’s to serve as a place to hide his sister after she had been kidnapped by the Symbonese Liberation Party. It was the Hearst family who named the farm Silver Penny after a beloved children’s poetry book.  They developed the gardens and spent a bit of time living in the house, using the water tower as an office and art studio.