Located on the north side of the Schuylkill River, opposite Valley Forge, the property was part of the Continental Army's 1777-78 winter encampment.

James Morgan dammed the creek and built a grist mill and miller's house on the north side of the Perkiomen Peninsula in 1749.

[2]: 104  In a February 28, 1771 advertisement in The Pennsylvania Gazette, he announced the upcoming auction of two adjacent properties, Fatland Farm and Mill Grove Farm:To be sold at public venue on the 4th day of March, upon the premises, if not sold before at private sale, by the subscriber, in Providence township, Philadelphia county, two valuable plantations, one of which consisting of 300 acres (Fatland farm), bounding near a mile on the Schuylkill river, whereas a good shad fishery; it also bounds the lands of Henry Pawling, Esq., and extends along the same to the Perkiomen; there are about 150 acres cleared, 20 whereof are good watered meadow and a great quantity more may be made; the woodland well timbered and the whole well watered, with the conveniency of watering every field on the plantation; there is a good stone dwelling house, brew house, with a large frame barn, three good bearing apple orchards, with a large peach orchard bearing plentifully.

[4] Part of its western boundary, shared with Henry Pawling's farm, was the road south to Fatland Ford, a shallow crossing of the Schuylkill River, opposite Valley Forge.

On September 21, 1777, General George Washington, accompanied by a detachment of his life guard and aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman, surveilled British troops at Valley Forge from the north side of the river.

At Washington's direction, his aide urgently wrote to General Alexander McDougall—"... the River has fallen and is fordable at almost any place, the Enemy can have no Reason to delay passing much longer.

[5] This bridge provided a river crossing in times of high water, and an escape route should British attack from the south.

Tearing down fences, destroying trees and doing thousands of pounds' worth of damage in various ways, they wrought such havoc that Mr. Vaux's estate was seriously embarrassed in consequence.

[3]: 202  "In the 1785 assessment of Providence township, James Vaux is recorded as a farmer, owning a farm of 300 acres of land, dwelling, four horses, six cows, one servant (colored), and one riding chair.

Robert Sutcliff, a relative of Bakewell's estate manager, visited in August 1804:This plantation, consists of 300 acres of good land, 200 of which are cleared, and 100 covered with wood.

On the estate is a well finished square stone house, about 15 yards [13.7 m] in length, with a wide boarded floor piazza, both in back and front.

Besides the dwelling house, there is an excellent kitchen, and offices adjoining; with a large barn, and stables sufficient to accommodate 40 horses and cows; all well built of stone.

[13]: 30–31 Sutcliff also visited Mill Grove, then owned by Jean Audubon, a retired French sea captain living in Nantes, France.

He invited us to go down into it, where, at the depth of about 12 feet, I saw a vein of lead ore 18 inches in thickness; and as it is wrought at a very easy expense, there was a great probability of its being a very valuable acquisition.

"[13]: 34 The "Frenchman" Sutcliff met may have been Dacosta, or it may have been the captain's 19-year-old son (and future naturalist) John James Audubon—they had arrived in America together the year before.

[14]: 40  With money borrowed from the Bakewells, Audubon sailed for France in January 1805 to sort out what to do about Mill Grove and the lead mine, and to obtain his father's permission to marry.

Audubon sold Mill Grove and his father's interest in the lead mine to Dacosta in September 1806,[2]: xxvi  and moved to New York City to work as a clerk in the counting house of Bakewell's brother.

[10]: 196  He was a Philadelphia physician, and partner – with his brother John, who inherited Mill Grove – in the Wetherill White Lead Works.

[22] The size and arrangement of the mansion's center hall and formal rooms were similar to James Vaux's expanded farmhouse,[9] but with much higher ceilings: "Fatland is special for the scale of the portico and its juxtaposed miniature service wing.

[15]: 43, n.3 Ownership of Fatland passed to the colonel's younger brother, William H. Wetherill, Jr. (1838–1927) and wife Elizabeth Proctor (1842–1914), under whom the property was "greatly beautified.

Samuel Wetherill, Jr. provided supplies to the Continental Army at Valley Forge, and was "read out of meeting" (disowned) by the Society of Friends in 1779, after refusing to renounce those actions.

The remains of Ira Allen, one of Vermont's Green Mountain Boys, had been lost with the closing of another Philadelphia cemetery, and his cenotaph also was moved to Fatland.

[31]: 412  Formerly part of Henry Pawling's farm, there the Archdiocese built the Philadelphia Protectory for Boys, an orphanage staffed by the Christian Brothers.

Architects Wilson Brothers & Company designed its Italianate orange-brick-and-red-tile-roofed building, which included a tall campanile, or belltower.

[10] By the time he revisited the estate in 1939, the landscape had changed: "So closely is the house screened by great ancient trees that only in winter can you catch a glimpse from a distance of its stately white porticoes gleaming through the interlacing branches.

"[34]: 119  The Camiels spent several years renovating the mansion, rehabilitating the overgrown estate, and returning it to being a working farm.

[5]: 56  About 1950, they sold off a section along the south side of Pawlings Road, between the mansion and Saint Gabriel's Hall, for a housing development.

[5]: 34 In 1951, following 138 years of family ownership, Herbert Johnson Wetherill sold Mill Grove to Montgomery County to create a bird sanctuary and house museum honoring John James Audubon.

As the highway leaves the connection with Betzwood Bridge and aims northwest toward Pottstown, it veers sharply south [sic west], down and around Camiel's farm, "Fatland."

[37]Whether Camiel acted from selfish or selfless motives (or a combination of both), the rerouting of the Pottstown Expressway spared Mill Grove – now a National Historic Landmark – and minimized the adverse effect on Fatland.