Anne and Joe Duncan have owned the 12-acre farm at 320 Hartford Road since 1991 when Anne’s aunt, Margaret Mitchell, deeded it to them. The earliest relative to own the property was Anne’s great uncle, Fred Washburn. Uncle Fred purchased the farm along with another 52-acre parcel across the road in 1915 for $3000. The price included “the land and all buildings, one cow and calf, 20 hens, carriages, sleds, hay harnesses and farming tools.”

Back then the farm buildings included the main house, a carriage house, chicken coop, the main barn, an ice house and a horse barn. The horse barn and ice house were originally located 75 to 100 feet south of the main barn, but they wasted away in the 1920’s. According to family records the house dates from about 1840. But the existing structure actually consists of two additions brought onto the property and joined to the main house in the 1860s.

The carriage house and barn were built in 1866 and 1867 respectively, when Judge Austin O. Gallup owned the property. The judge lived on the farm from 1851 until he died in 1896. Both of these buildings are timber-framed structures with American chestnut posts and beams and pine siding.

In 1919 Uncle Fred Washburn passed the property on to his niece, Alice Mitchell, and her husband, Edward (Anne’s grandparents) who had moved down to the farm from Needham, Massachusetts to live with Uncle Fred when he purchased the property in 1915. Uncle Fred remained on the property until he passed away in 1933. Alice and Edward managed a small dairy herd on the farm beginning in the 1920s. They also served the town of Salem in various capacities for several years: Nany Alice as the Judge of Probate and Grandpa Edward as the First Selectman. Nanny Alice died in 1965. The last of the dairy herd left the farm in the 1970s. When Grandpa Edward died in 1981, the farm passed on to his daughter and Anne Duncan’s aunt, Margaret Mitchell.

Anne and Joe Duncan were married in 1973, shortly after Joe graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy. They traveled around the country to Joe’s various duty assignments until he retired from active duty in 1995. Anne and Joe established The Salem Herbfarm on the old homestead as a retail plant nursery in 1997. They completed a lengthy restoration project on the old barn in 1998 and converted it into the Judge Austin Gallup gift barn. The original 1867 chestnut structure remains clearly visible throughout, and although the exterior siding has been replaced, the original pine, board and batten siding graces the interior walls of the old barn.

Things changed again in 2015 when, for personal reasons, Anne and Joe decided to close the plant nursery and begin the process of converting the old homestead over to a wedding and event venue. The barn renovations included: extending the main barn 15 feet south to accomodate a larger dining capacity; removing the entire floor structure and replacing it with one up to current code; and adding two, large handicap accessible bathrooms, a bride’s changing room, a catering setup and serving room and a new rear entrance.

A quick tour of the barn will tell you that as much “old stuff” as possible from the farm was reused in the barn restoration. For example: the original pine, board and batten exterior siding and the old oak, shiplap flooring were reused as interior siding on the walls; and 160 year old, strap hinges were used on all of the recycled pine, restroom doors. There are also lots of old tools, horse tack, lanterns, license plates, dog tags and other memorabilia hanging around here and there. If you can guess what purpose that big, copper tank plumbed into the bathrooms serves, you could win a prize.

As of January of 2020, the venue project is almost complete. Some of the inhansments we hope to complete this year include: a 1000 square foot, blue stone patio to be used as our primary wedding ceremony site; a large, lighted water fountain for the upper pond; a complete restoration of the greenhouse on the southeast corner of the venue for outdoor functions; and further plantings around the venue lawns and gardens. In another few years, when the arborvitae that completely encircle the venue grow to their expected height of 10 to 20 feet, The Salem Herbfarm Event Venue will just disappear into its own little world.