Four Winds Farm has been in continual use since the 1770’s as farm, artistic hub and family home. Through the years, the land has supported flax, apples, berries, vegetables, lumber, sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, and chickens. From the time of the Revolutionary War until the late 1800’s, Four Winds Farm was the homestead of the Longley family. It then changed hands when Edward Burnett, renowned agricultural innovator (and our great-great uncle), expanded the farm and built a manor house on the hill. He sold the property in 1921, and the manor house burned down shortly after that sale, abandoning marble pillars amongst the ruins, as well as leaving the sunken garden and tennis courts to grow wild.
However, Four Winds Farm was entering a new era of significance in the 1920’s. Perhaps due to the influence of the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough has always drawn summer residents from Boston and New York’s art, theater and dance community. Under the care of actress, socialite, and suffragette Marie Burress Currier, Four Winds became the first home to Mariarden, a summer theatrical and dance institution of cultural significance. After the Mariarden campus was built elsewhere in Peterborough, Four Winds Farm was sold to her collaborator May Fiske Hoffman (our great-grandmother), who preserved many artifacts from its theatrical era including stage backdrops, marquis posters, tickets and playbills. For a generation after this period the farm produced apples and berries under the management of Hoffman’s children, including Mary MacNaught, who kept the farm afloat. In time, our mother Duffy cultivated a deep love and respect for the land, putting all of its nearly 350 acres in nature conservation easement ensuring the use an enjoyment for generations to come. Duffy married Rick Monahon, who was instrumental in preserving Historic Harrisville, and together they designed the current Hill House on the site of the ruins of the Burnett manor house. Now, managed by Duffy’s children, the farm is slowly being restored for a new heyday. There are cattle in the fields, weddings in the event barn, and steady efforts to restore the gardens of the Burnett era. Welcoming new visitors to the property, community involvement, and artists in residence, Four Winds Farm continues to be a treasure in the community.
