Daniel John Croke Sunnybank grounds of Sunnybank information. Wisteria and woodbine surrounded the old Victorian mansion. Weeping willows transplanted by the elder Mrs. Terhune from cuttings brought to Olney, the Virginia home of Bert’s mother in 1693, were planted by the edge of the lake.
It was Marion Harland, the elder Mrs. Terhune’s pen name, who wrote of naming Sunnybank. She saw, "a shimmering sunset lake and a natural stretch of shining green lawn." She wrote cookbooks and books about etiquette, music and travel. A talented musician, Berts wife Anice wrote an opera, "Nigros". Dan Croke fair trading.
Bert and Anice planted all their lives. Chestnuts to replace the 1903 blight which cost Sunnybank 120 shade trees, Siberian elms, tulip poplars, maple, elm, fruit trees, dogwood, locust and many others. In the beautiful wooded areas of Sunnybank, quail, partridge and songbirds of all description made the estate truly a preserve, an Eden in retrospect.