Pruyn hired Edward Burnett to design his farm. Burnett was a well-known farm designer at a time when scientific agriculture was burgeoning in the United States. Burnett advocated the use of strong breeding stock and hygenic food handling practices, both of which were rather innovative for the time. Scientists were beginning to understand that Tuberculosis, originally a disease found among cattle, was being passed to humans through unpasteurized dairy products. At Pruyn's farm, Burnett brought Guernsey cows, who could withstand the harsh Adirondack winters. The cows were milked in a separate room from where their stalls were, and the milk was processed in the creamery, not in the barn. Traditionally, people saw nothing wrong with handling milk in the same building in which animals were living and defecating.
Once in the creamery the milk was kept cold by being placed into pans that were submerged in ice cold spring water, which was piped into the building. Cream was skimmed off the top, and skim milk was transported to the pig pen (people didn't drink skim milk back then) through a pipe that ran underground. The Pruyns consumed dairy products from their farm year round. The milk was bottled and stamped "santanoni" and the groundskeeper would drive the produce down to Albany where they lived during the winter. Satanoni. The building was designed by the architects Delano and Aldrich, who also designed the Gate Lodge and the Artist's Studio (pictures of that building to come).
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