X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Willis Sharpe Kilmer


Court Manor

In 1925, Court Manor was purchased by Willis Sharpe Kilmer, a New York entrepreneur, newspaperman, and horse breeder best known for marketing his uncle's popular medicinal tonic "Dr. Kilmer's cure-all remedy Swamp Root".

Historic houses in Virginia

1812, Rockingham County - early Greek-Revival manor house, former home of Willis Sharpe Kilmer

Willis Sharpe Kilmer

The Swamp Root formulation fell out of favor after the advent of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, which resulted in the federal government imposing testing and labeling requirements on a variety of products, including patent medicines with dubious claims.

He was extensively involved in real estate, owning a family mansion in Binghamton, NY, constructing the twelve story Press Building in downtown Binghamton as a home for another new business he created, The Binghamton Press Co., building several other less-prominent buildings in downtown Binghamton, and three racing stables and estates: Sun Briar Court in Binghamton, Court Manor in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Remlik, on the banks of Virginia's Rappahannock River.



see also