About Us

In 1859, after a voyage from england…

Samuel & Mary Ann Shute settled in Webb Hollow, in LaFayette, near the Onondaga Nation.

After arriving in America, they were able to create quite the life for themselves.

From raising two goats to pay for passage for his son, John, to planting an apple orchard, & purchasing the 55-acre farm he had started out renting, Mr. Shute died a prosperous farmer in 1890.

His wife, Mary, was left with a stable of fine horses and his children shares in a fertile farm. As the generations passed, struggles hit the family hard.

The Great Depression drove Samuel’s grandson Fred (& 9 children) deep into debt.

Against this backdrop we first meet our hero and founder, Walter Shute.

At the age of fourteen, Walt quit school to help the family. He would pointedly recall that when the teacher implored him to stay in school, “It was either quit school or starve to death. So I went home and started cutting cabbages.”

The children, along with their father, all pitched in & over time, the mortgage on the farm was paid off, the first tractor was purchased, and refrigeration brought to the milk house. They even got electricity to the farm house!

Walt met and married the lovely Alice Warner in 1944, raising 5 children together. The kids were always running around the farm and playing in the barns—even catching a swig of milk directly from the source.

Mrs. Shute, at 98, still lives in her house on Shute Road today.

A perceptive entrepreneur, Walt could see that with change on the horizon, including the state buyout of farms in a consolidation scheme, the days of the commonplace small farmer were numbered.

So, in a bold and daring move, he became a dealer for the Meuller milking equipment company. There he used his instant likability to his advantage and achieved the highest sales of bulk tanks & equipment for any company east of the Mississippi.

Despite his booming success as a Salesman—Nothing lasts forever. When the industry dried up, he bought cows and began farming again, not knowing what else to do.

In 1979, with his son Craig back home from Texas, he sold the cows for the last time. The two men hit on an industry that was coming into its own.

In the beginning, they would bring in old metal trailers, their wives would remodel them, and they would be available for rent.

As Walt & Craig developed the first section of Webb Hollow Development—installing water, sewer service, roads, & home pads, they began selling their first homes.

Since then, a community really began to take shape. In fact, we still have one of our residents from those first years, who moved here in 1980.

In a tragic blow to the whole family, Craig died of a brain aneurism in 1982 at the age of 32.

After the loss of his brother, Dale—Walt’s youngest son, came home from New Jersey to partner with his father in what was now called Parc du Bois.

The years that followed saw explosive growth in home sales, the introduction of multi-section homes, multiple expansions, and the paving of the community roads.

Around the time of Walt’s retirement at the age of 80, Craig’s son Seth came onboard. Together, he & Dale undertook the ‘new’ western expansion that was completed in 1998.

Seth moved on to study the law, but upon graduation from college (and to his father’s great relief) Dale’s son Craig partnered with his father in 2009 on what would be called Hidden Hills Country Homes.

With the great recession, growth came to a screeching halt for several years, but capitalizing on our internet presence, and people’s desire to do business with a family they can trust, new residents began streaming in once again.

People often ask, “This community looks so great. Neat, quiet. But how do I know once I move in that it will stay that way?”

I remind them that Hidden Hills is on Shute Road, so our family's good name is staked on the quality of this community.

We are onsite every day, and we invest thousands of dollars every year to make improvements to benefit your experience. It matters very much to us who our residents are.

We invite you to give us a call or stop by any time.

We’re happy to show you around our old homestead -- your new home.