History of HillTop Farm Complex

The story behind the purchase of HillTop Farm is an interesting affair. First it is necessary to understand that West-Mont United Soccer Association (WMU) was originally called Valley Soccer Association (VSA) by its founding members. The name reflected its roots which were affiliated with Perkiomen Valley School district. In the late 1990’s VSA realized that its membership had changed, and that an equal majority was from the Spring Ford Area School district. Thus the association needed to change its name to better represent itself. Thus West-Mont United Soccer Association was chosen in the Spring of 2001.

In the early 1990’s the present day location of Evergreen Elementary school was home of the entire Valley Soccer Association intramural program. VSA travel soccer teams played home games at Limerick Elementary School. In 1993 the PV School district formally notified VSA of their plans to build Evergreen Elementary. The search for a new location began. Soon following VSA had an agreement of sale to purchase property. This parcel is the present day Sunnybrook Estates located slightly north-east of the intersection of Ridge Pike and Township Line road. The agreement of sale was continued several times and for several years. However, the association found it difficult to secure financing and as a result the opportunity was never realized.   

For the next 6-7 years the association ran its intramural program in several different locations including Camp Kweebec in Schwenksville, Limerick Elementary School, the new Evergreen Elementary School, PV North Elementary School, PV Trappe school and Limerick Township Veterans Park. During some seasons all of these locations were utilized. As you can imagine the feedback wasn’t good.  The number one parent complaint was traveling among various locations on a single game day. VSA continued its search for a property and a particular Board member named Greg Haller was keen to the need.  

Mr. Haller was spending a good amount of time coaching soccer but was also spending time honing his aim with archery. Seems he was a member of the Limerick Bowman’s Association.  Between twangs of the bow he befriended Mr. Ronald Hockenberry. Mr. Hockenberry and his family are the present day tenants at HillTop Farm. Through this friendship came conversations about the soccer club’s needs, discussions, meetings and an eventual agreement to purchase HillTop Farm from the property owner, the Gottshall Family. Richard and Robert Gottshall had discussed selling the property with the Hockenberrys. The Hockenberrys were faced with finding a new home. The Gottshalls shared that they hoped to somehow preserve their childhood fields of dreams and when they were approached about making the property a soccer facility for children they were happy to do their part.  

The following account of the history of the Gottshall Family was obtained by interview with Robert Gottshall in the summer of 2005. The author was at HillTop Farm arranging some grass and stones.  Robert Gottshall stopped by to say hello and a conversation ensued. The Gottshall family purchased the property in February-March of 1914. The financial arrangements were made by a Mr. Fry who lived in the Village of Limerick. Generally the Village of Limerick was the surrounding homes and business about the area of Ridge and Swamp Pikes. In September of the same year the Gottshalls purchased an additional 22 acres of property across the street from present day HillTop Farm from Mr. Warren Linderman. Robert N. Gottshall was the older of the sons and was born May 1st, 1915. He was born in the house by midwife and was a real estate professional. His brother Richard J. Gottshall was born August 26th, 1924. He was also born in the house by midwife and became a minister. Robert Gottshall lived in the area all of his life and passed away in December 2006 while residing at 721 Mine Hill road, Schwenksville.

The original barn on the property burned at one point and was rebuilt. It is an over and under barn, it contained 20 stalls for cows and an additional 2 rear stalls for calves.

Robert Gottshall attended the Washington School in Limerick which is the building across the street from the new WaWa at the intersection of Lewis Road and Ridge Pike. After 8 years he graduated and went on to attend Collegeville High School, 5th Avenue in Collegeville. He road a trolley train from Limerick to Collegeville in order to make his way to school. He graduated in 1929 and went to Ursinus College. Robert Gottshall had many fond memories of the area and shared one such story about HillTop Farm. When he was a teenager and during a particularly hot summer day decided to build his own swimming pond. He built it along the creek bed that passes through HillTop Farm and used the creek water to fill the pond. He shared that it took him two weeks to dig the hole, both wide and deep enough to make it worth his time to swim. He swam for just one week and a summer time hurricane washed his dreams away. This is but one memory that inspired him to preserve HillTop Farm. HillTop Farm is a 37 acre parcel. WMU purchased the property in March 2001 and that Fall Limerick Township granted the association a conditional use permit to utilize the property for recreational soccer. Grass seed was planted by Scott Laskey and others and the first games were played in the Spring of 2002. Evan Eastman, Ed Graff, Doug Neal, Scott Laskey, Joanne Neal, Chuck Kupferschmidt, Pat Welch, George Gray, Greg Haller, Ron Hockenberry and others prepared the site for its inaugural season. The parking lot was dug and stone placed. The lower driveway was built. In the coming year, the field beside the barn was cut-in, the white fence installed, snack bar opened and the foot bridge across the creek repaired by Carmen Valerio and his Band of Dads. And of course the grass was nurtured. In the summer of 2003 the old barn had its roof repaired and replaced by Samuel  Zook and sons, better known by his business name as Chief Oscello builders. That same summer Kevin Rafuse a Limerick Township painter and long time WMU coach painted the barn and added his artistic touch by applying the WMU logo on the front facade. The winds of change were howling in Limerick Township and soon controversy came to West-Mont United. A two year stand off was resolved during the Fall 2005 municipal elections that saw many new faces elected to Limerick Township Board of Supervisors. Also, December 2005 brought a change in leadership to WMU. This change lead the Association in a new direction and to its present day operation. The WMU Board of directors hired Conver and Smith Engineering in the summer of 2006, to complete the HillTop Farm Land Development Plan. Then followed quickly the hiring of Arthur Altemose Architects to produce the necessary drawings for the long awaited barn-to-clubhouse renovation. Over the years many folks have contributed countless hours of time to the cause. Two notable individuals include Attorney Joseph J. McGrory and Engineer Theodore Kochen.

HillTop Farm continues to evolve as new officers leave their mark. However, the one thing that remains constant is that thousands of children enjoy kicking a soccer ball into the back of a net.  For this we are forever grateful to the Gottshall Family.

West-Mont United Soccer Association (WMU) is one of the oldest organized youth soccer programs in the region, founded in 1976. The program was started and hosted at Perkiomen Valley High School with just 2 co-ed teams. Over the years the program grew and by the early 1990’s player enrollment reached 1000.  As the area grew, so did the needs of local school districts. The fall of 1994 was the last year we ran the entire program on the present day location of Evergreen Elementary School in the PV School District. Our program continued to grow and by the late 1990’s enrollment surpassed 1500. At the same time we began to search in earnest for a permanent location. In 2001 through the goodwill of the Gottshall family we purchased HillTop farm on Royersford Road in Limerick. Along with the purchase we changed our name to West-Mont United Soccer Association. The name better reflects the geographic location of the areas we serve. By 2003 player enrollment reached its present day 2500. WMU provides organized youth soccer activity for any child who wants to learn and play soccer. We are not school district restrictive and are considered an open soccer club. This means any child may enroll with us. While most of the boys and girls come from the communities served by the Spring-Ford Area and Perkiomen Valley School Districts as well as the surrounding vicinity in Western Montgomery County, we do have members from the greater Philadelphia area who participate in our various levels of soccer programs.