By Caroline Roosevelt
Contributing Writer

My dream of interviewing Barbara Montgomery – the performing artist, the producer, the healer and the connector – was supposed to happen on a walking tour around the pond at her Farmhouse Retreat Center. 

On the day I arrived, however, the weather had turned sour and the sky had opened up, so my dream of traipsing through the green fields and sitting by the waterfall at the Retreat would have to wait for another time.

I pulled into the driveway, one lined with Tibetan prayer flags, shut the engine off to my car, and took a breath. Suddenly, the rain I had resented all morning had become an accomplice to a beautiful lush, green setting. It amplified the sounds of the nearby waterfall as rivulets trickled through the rocks and added to calming energy of the red farmhouse perched at the corner of Bayard Road and Sills Mill Road.

I walked up the stone stairs to the back entrance - which had thoughtfully incorporated the gears from the old mill - and knocked and knocked again. As I opened the door from the porch to the house, I was transported again, this time into a calm and warm sanctuary. 

I noticed a chalkboard in the kitchen, on which were written the following words: patience, generosity, kindness, joyful effort, meditation and wisdom. A dog greeted me cautiously, and as I entered the living room, the entire space opened up to reveal beautifully restored wooden ceiling beams and a long, dark wood dining table that held a small bowl of cooling oatmeal and berries at the end seat. Clearly, a breakfast had been prepared and had been interrupted. I put my purse down, smiled at the dog who was still skeptical of my intentions, and suddenly heard a warm, velvety voice ascending from the lower level of the house. 

“Hello! Come on in,” Barbara smiled as she approached me. “I was just getting to my breakfast!”

I had been looking forward to learning more about the woman behind the Farmhouse Retreat Center, a safe space for growth, reflection, and nourishment that seemingly transcends space and time and has played host to audiences as diverse as inner-city youth from Philadelphia to women veterans experiencing combat trauma. 

Barbara’s journey to the farmhouse started in 2002, soon after a domestic dispute turned murder-suicide of a girl in Barbara’s daughters’ class at The Baldwin School in Haverford left the class of fifteen-year-old girls mourning for the loss of their classmate. Knowing how immensely traumatic this situation would be for these girls in their formative years, Barbara set an idea into motion to provide the girls with an opportunity to heal together.

“I am one of those people who if I have an idea I will do it, even if somebody doesn’t ask me,” she said.

Around that time, Barbara was asked to lead the Brady Campaign (now Brady United) against gun violence for the Million Mom March Pennsylvania Chapter and found herself advocating on Capitol Hill. After experiencing gridlock in working with Congress with the intention of curbing gun violence and becoming discouraged over elected officials’ inability to understand the needs of their constituents, she pivoted. 

“I realized that this was killing my soul, and my time would be better used working with the kids and community groups and serving them directly,” she said. With that in mind, Barbara began her search for a permanent space to lead workshops and provide a healing space for her growing network of communities, who, through their work with her in the nonprofit world, had heard about her retreat.

‘I have a farmhouse’

As founder and executive director of the Farmhouse Retreat Center, Barbara has developed her passion to build and serve community at a grassroots level through an impressive resume of experience. She is a certified Integrative/Holistic/Lifestyle Medicine Practitioner specializing in orthomolecular medicine, nutritional biochemistry, chronic degenerative disease, PTSD, women’s health, age and weight management and pediatric neurological organization and development.

“I had this idea around 2006, and I wrote it down every day in a little notebook,” she said. “I wrote ‘I have a farmhouse,’ with the understanding that if I wrote it down every day, I would envision it and someday it would transpire. Every day I would write little notes about it for about a year and a half. Eventually, I went online to search for farmhouses, and the first photograph that came up was here,” she said, pointing out a window of the living room to a pitched roof and towering cypress trees on the property. 

The home and the seven-acre property and the pond and the waterfall were soon hers.

The Farmhouse Retreat Center, located in the historic Sills Mill Property, was built in 1747 and operated as a grist mill, providing flour for the Continental Army, then transformed into a paper mill in 1856 and then became a residential home a few decades ago. 

Much like the multiple iterations of the mill house itself, some people manage to live several completely separate but also completely rounded lives in one and Barbara Montgomery is one of those bright lights. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Montgomery lived in Vietnam in her early years – due to her father’s role as an electrical engineer – and moved to Philadelphia in the late 1960s. She worked for a decade for “The Mike Douglas Show” from its Philadelphia studios in the 1970s, rising from a production assistant to film editor, camera operator, lighting director, property master and stage manager. 

An accomplished musician and singer, Montgomery has released six albums and for many years, she performed at clubs and venues on the Philly jazz circuit, and also served as the musical director for fitness expert Richard Simmons for several years. In addition, she is a Board Member and President Emeritus at the Chenrezig Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia (where she received direct instruction from Venerable Losang Samten and His Holiness the Dalai Lama), President Emeritus, Pennsylvania Million Mom Chapters of the Brady Campaign, and Member of Vietnam Veterans for Peace.

Finding ways to dovetail her nonprofit work and her rich resume in the creative sector has proved natural for the programming at The Farmhouse. Barbara’s retreats often include elements of music, writing and Buddhism. 

“I once did a summer retreat here called ‘Haven for Healing,’” she said. “Two jazz musicians, one was a percussionist and the other a horns player and 15 congos. Throughout the weekend, we used percussion to heal, and there would be time for being in the woods, time for journaling and time for meditation.”

‘Here. Now.’

Her love for the property shows up in the thoughtful renovations that have been made to the Farmhouse throughout the years, and the work she has put forth reflects her advocacy for the green spaces and waters on the property. Meanwhile, the rich history of the former mill grows with each passing year, as Barbara embues the space with more energy from the retreats, and as she led me down the renovated staircase to the lower level, she explained the intention behind the aesthetics of the Farmhouse. 

“When you walk in, you feel good right away, ‘Like, oh, this is Nana’s home. Grandmother’s home,” she said. “It’s cozy, and my blood pressure just dropped.” 

I find myself struggling to wrap up the interview, as I’ve been charmed by the property, the owner, and the energy of the space. As we head back up to the main floor of the Farmhouse, I asked Barbara what she sees for the future of the beauty, intention and inspiration she has created for herself and others. She smiled softly.

“Here. Now,” she said.

I suddenly realized that all of Barbara’s amazing accomplishments, her vibrant stories and her colorful human connections spark from her Buddhist practice of staying in the present. It is a lesson I took with me, as I promised her that I would drop by again for tea. Whenever that time comes, I hope to have my cup filled with Barbara and the warm, authentic energy she has embedded in the Farmhouse Retreat.