Princeton, MA
Charbrook is located in Nipmuc territory somewhere between Menamesit and Naquag at the foothills of Mount Watchuset. It is a working family farm with heritage Milking Devon cattle, Herdwick Sheep, lots of chickens, an old Maine Coon cat and a pair of feral kids. The farmland had been abandoned in the 1920s, and old fields had grown into a birch, poplar, maple, oak and pine woodlands with traces of colonial stone walls, a hidden spring and wetlands. After dozens of iterations, a house and studio were built with red oak milled from the land, along with outbuildings to support the farm. The orchard, cow pasture, and sheep meadows are all used for rotational grazing. Charbrook abuts MA State Forest land and a Mass Audubon Sanctuary, giving the farm an opportunity to integrate agriculture with ecology, testing the idea that farming is compatible with the surrounding wilder landscape.
In 2021, we opened the studio at Charbrook as a way to integrate a live-work model and landscape laboratory into our landscape architecture practice.
Photography
Lauren and Stephen Stimson
Ngoc Doan
Jonathan Levitt