In today’s fast-paced world, Christine Barensfeld senses alienation—even despondency— in our culture as well as in herself. As she says, “I haven’t really adjusted to the current instant tech.”
To counter those feelings, experts recommend that we step out of our hectic lives and go outside—maybe even get back to the land. Barensfeld found her own remedy on the Towne farm in Boxford, tucked on 19 acres at the end of an ancient winding lane. Barensfeld has spent the last seven years with a team of craftspeople painstakingly restoring the property, now called iFarm LLC, to its original 1790 state—stone by stone, board by board, and nail by nail.
Barensfeld was exposed to farm life while growing up outside Pittsburgh and something about the Boxford farm connected with her. “This property gave me the sense of stepping back to those simpler times,” she says. Still, she never saw herself involved in a project of such magnitude. “It wasn’t until after I finally closed on the deal,” she says, “that I actually started thinking, ‘What now?’”
Ben Nutter, principal of Benjamin Nutter Architects, LLC, in Topsfield, recalls talking with Barensfeld more than seven years ago about her “very deliberate idea” of restoring the abandoned property to a mid-19th-century working farm. In 2009, the two took a walk around Barensfeld’s new acquisition. “We went over to the property, taking inventory of the layout and structures,” Nutter says. “A huge winter storm had just dropped about a foot of snow the previous night, and I was struck by how idyllic the farm appeared.” Nutter himself grew up doing some farming on his parents’ 30-acre “weekend farm,” he reminisces. “That was where I first developed a love and respect for old buildings and rural settings.”
Seeing the farm in its decaying state was a formidable sight. “I remember thinking, this could be a significant financial undertaking and take years to accomplish,” Nutter says. “But then Chris looked me in the eye and said, ‘We can just start now and work through each building, one at a time, carefully and thoughtfully. There’s no rush.’”
“We’ve spent a lot of time mulling over multitudes of conceptual ideas,” Barensfeld says. Ultimately, she determined that the entire property would become a sanctuary, a retreat for relief from today’s fast-paced information-driven society.
To get a better handle on the farm’s historic nature, Nutter and Barensfeld brought in Christine Beard of Tremont Preservation Services in Ipswich, who opined that the property would likely qualify for the National Register of Historic Places (they received formal recognition in 2012).
In the process of restoring the farm buildings, the team of like-minded individuals discovered an astonishing picture of New England life in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Beginning in 1790, the Towne family settled the property and constructed the original farmhouse. Boxford tax records reveal that the main barn was in place by 1799, built with English timber framing methods. In 1858, a Towne family diary notes the raising of the timber frame for the carriage house, which is located between the house and main barn.
In the 1880s, additional main barn work was performed, including an extension to the back of the barn—this time with newly developed Yankee framing practices, now prevalent throughout New England—to accommodate a dairy operation. By 1900, a small utility building was moved in and set across from the house and barn. In 1907, a wooden water tower was placed atop a high spot on the property, pulling water from a hand-dug well via a windmill. In 1930, a garage was built next to the utility building.
After five generations of ownership, the Great Depression and other hardships forced the Towne family to give up the property in 1933. Following that, ownership changed hands five times, during which time the Price family donated 80 acres to the Essex County Greenbelt Association. The Towne family had also previously given land that became the Boxford State Forest. In 2008, a developer sought to build an enclave of homes, which would have doomed all of the historic structures. Barensfeld caught wind of this prospect and negotiated the purchase of the farm.
With historic preservation as a priority for the project, Nutter focused on the heart of the house, the original kitchen with its large wood-burning hearth and beehive oven. Barensfeld decided there would be no appliances or cabinetry, other than a small addition to accommodate a wood-burning cook stove and an attached woodshed.
The greater challenge was melding the older period infrastructure with newly updated mechanical systems and requirements of 21st-century building codes. To recreate an authentic 19th-century environment, basic modern-day conveniences and mechanicals would have to be tucked away in the basement—quite a feat, since the house sat on a porous original fieldstone foundation with a very shallow crawl space.
Barensfeld established a professional alliance with craftspeople to accomplish the historical restoration, which helped with the creation of iFarm LLC. “I had the property, I had the vision, and I had the resources,” Barensfeld says. “All I needed was a team of fine craftspeople to pull it off.”
After Nutter, the next to join the team was timber frame expert Arron Sturgis, owner of Preservation Timber Framing in Berwick, Maine. Sturgis came with impeccable credentials, as the contractor chosen to restore the steeple atop the Topsfield First Congregational Church. “He is a master of his craft,” Barensfeld says.
“Timber-framed structures are special because they tell their own story, often through successive renovations spanning many generations,” Sturgis says. “I could tell iFarm’s original house and main barn pre-dated 1800 because of the original English framing systems, plus they used ‘king’s wood—or oak—which after 1800 had been cleared out, having been sent back to England to build the King’s ships.”
The restoration team required one more key member: a general contractor. Barensfeld knew just the person: Steve Howell, president of Howell Custom Building Group in Boxford.
The team got to work, shoring up the massive center chimney in the main house from below—replacing in-kind a partially rotted wooden foundation—and lavishing attention on the main barn, which required, among other things, replacing all but 18 feet of the rotted sill. Everyone agreed it was time and money well spent.
“Overall, the property was in complete disrepair,” Howell recalls. “I explained that if we did the work well, with an eye toward doing it right the first time, Chris could rebuild the past to last long into the future.” For almost six years, Steve’s crews, including project manager John Taylor and lead carpenters Bill Holden and Mike Clark, investigated, repaired, or restored all five structures with the mantra “restoration for preservation.”
“The most difficult part of the restoration was finding the right balance between updating structures and systems to code while still preserving historic character,” Howell says. “We set about to constantly evaluate every system and piece of material for the right application.”
Every effort was made to use or recycle pre-existing or salvaged material. “We became so proficient that we actually reused some of the original hardware and nails,” Howell says. Some of the trees on the property were felled and milled on site and utilized as sheathing and flooring.
Most of Sturgis’s heavy lifting occurred in the main barn. “We jacked it up and removed most of the original sills, which consisted of two separate vintages,” he says. Sturgis also augmented the existing timber framing under the roof rafters to bolster support.
There, Howell workers removed about two feet of grade material to create a more comfortable working height in the bottom level, pouring a new buttress wall to support the stone foundation. Howell also oversaw new stairs for the upper hay lofts with custom-made iron railings.
The utility shed, moved to the property in 1900, became a mechanical hub for electrical utilities. Crews then trenched underground from the closest access point, nearly a quarter-mile away, to bring in 400-amp service.
Last was the house, which required a brand-new foundation. “The house had spent over 220 years shape-shifting over a porous, heaving fieldstone foundation,” Howell says. “By excavating the shallow crawl space and pouring a new foundation, we have better preserved the structure for years to come by keeping out all that moisture.”
Lillabeth Weis, owner of Landscapes by Lillabeth, LLC, in Georgetown, entered the project in 2012. As a land care professional accredited by the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), Weis specializes in permaculture-based landscape design, installation, and maintenance. In time, Barensfeld says, iFarm will yield organic vegetables for the local community. For iFarm, Weis designed and installed extensive permaculture beds with a vast array of indigenous plantings, focused on returning the property back to complementary native species.
Seven years is a very long time to be working continuously on one project, especially one this large and complex. To help manage the flow of information with updated plans, schedules, and changes, Barensfeld instituted a weekly meeting for project particpants. At minimum, it consisted of the four principal parties: Barensfeld, Nutter, Howell, and Sturgis. But it often swelled to include crew members, project managers, subcontractors, landscapers, designers, historians, accountants, neighbors, and spouses.
“What began as an exercise evolved into a unique phenomenon that has taken on a life of its own,” Barensfeld says. “My main priority was to create and maintain a collaborative environment. What we all learned was not to force any one right way or method, but to patiently wait for the most appropriate solution to evolve.”
Nutter recalls the meetings generating many intense discussions about all aspects of project. But it was worth it. “What came out of it was that each building at iFarm has been thoroughly and lovingly restored, just like priceless antique furniture,” he says, “using time-honored crafts, techniques, and original materials wherever and whenever possible.”
As the story writer, I had a chance to visit iFarm this winter. Like Nutter on his first visit in 2009, I was treated to a fresh snowfall. I couldn’t help but think how wonderful the setting is—and what a pleasure it is to tell its story. Pulling up the long, narrow, winding driveway—a perfect metaphor for this lifelong undertaking—I parked among the restored and new structures, taking in their magnitude amid the morning snowflakes.
A farmhand was busily shoveling parking spaces for the weekly meeting, while Barensfeld called out a hello from the farmhouse porch. As members of the team started arriving and chatting, she turned to me and asked, “How are your fire-building skills?”
Over the next hour, the group reviewed an application for the Massachusetts Historical Commission 2016 Preservation Award, among other topics. There was a sense of melancholy in the room. While everyone realized that there were still a few smaller projects on the horizon—among them relocating the equipment barn, perhaps opening a harvest center—their days at iFarm were coming to a close. One by one, they started summarizing what that meant to them. All agreed that focusing on preservation and craftsmanship in such a peaceful environment, and in such a thoughtful manner, was a uniquely powerful experience.
“I’m not totally sure what lies ahead for iFarm,” Barensfeld says, “other than continuing to enjoy being a ‘gentlewoman’ farmer.” The objective is very clear, she says: to create educational and agricultural opportunities for the community, with an eye on preserving history. “No matter if it’s growing grains and vegetables, raising sheep for wool, or using draft horses to harvest crops and skid timber.”
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