Atwood Farm
Photo: Milton Levin
Visit the Farm
Directions: At the intersection of Gurleyville Road and Wormwood Hill Road (Wormwood Hill Road runs between Route 89 and Route 44). The property fronts on Wormwood Hill and Mount Hope Roads
Tours: You can take a self-guided tour by downloading the map of the buildings and their descriptions. This tour takes you through the history of the various buildings on the property. There is also a guide to the apple orchard! (Very fun during harvest season!)
About the Property
The 68-acre Atwood Farm was bequeathed to Joshua’s Trust in 2012 by Isabelle Atwood, a life-long Mansfield resident and a founding member of Joshua’s Trust. Isabelle and her twin sister Harriet were born in 1918 and lived on the farm their entire lives.
The farm includes the rambling nineteenth century home the Trust now uses for its headquarters, as well as a large bank barn, blacksmith’s shop, weaver’s cottage and other farm outbuildings. The grounds include an extensive heirloom fruit orchard, woodlot, pastures, and hay fields which are currently managed by a local farmer.
“Thanks to the generosity of Isabelle Atwood,” Joshua’s Trust Executive Director Michael Hveem said, “we now have a historic and comfortable space where volunteers can work together, where we can host public events, and where people can learn what conservation meant a hundred years ago and what it means today.”
The historical significance of the farm includes a link to Connecticut politics: Isabelle Atwood’s grandfather purchased the property that is now the Farm in 1886. In that same year he married Harriet Cross – first cousin to Wilbur Cross, who served as Connecticut’s governor from 1931 to 1939.
Location: Mansfield Center, Connecticut
Donor: Isabelle Atwood
Acreage: 68
Preserved: 2012
