The Barn at Asa Stone Farm

Tradition and Modernity Merge in a Restored, Residential Barn

Its soaring architecture reimagined to hold four bedrooms, a library landing, and a dramatic great room/kitchen combo, this striking residence’s timbers stretch skyward, displaying traditional joinery, hand-hewn beams and rafters with historical markings. A huge bank of ebonized windows opens up one generous barn wall, flooding the rustic structure with light, and offering views out onto the 120-acre apple orchard. Interior shuttered windows and the historical re-assemblage mean the stunning barn showcases traditional architecture, yet the space exudes an elegant, breezy modernity and offers guests contemporary styling and comforts.

Balancing history and modernity, luxury and rusticity, the barn looks over a 120-acre apple orchard and sits on a seven-acre family farm run by its resident owners.

Around

Across the street, 500 acres of protected open space includes a public walking trail, the Maplecroft Farm Trail, crossing agricultural fields, quiet farm roads, marshes and flowering meadows. The neighboring apple orchard is also a winery, and the barn is only five minutes from the 2,100+-acre coastal Crane Estate that includes an expansive, four-mile beach (Crane Beach) north of Cape Ann, featuring big dunes and a maritime pitch pine forest. Crane Beach is one of the world’s most important nesting sites for the threatened piping plover, a shorebird nearly wiped out in the 19th century by hunters seeking its eggs and feathers.

The nearby coastal community of Ipswich in the Cape Ann region offers multiple opportunities for outdoor exploration. Farm stands and orchards line the leafy country roads, and water activities are abundant with both the Ipswich Bay and River great for boating, canoeing or wildlife/bird watching. The town is famous for its namesake clams, and microbreweries offer locally crafted beer to wash down the bivalves. Proud locals claim their community was the “birthplace of American Independence,” after residents protested a tax imposed by the British Crown in 1687, an act of resistance they say is considered a “foundation of American Democracy.”

Location

Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States. Nearest airport: Boston (30 miles)

Best time to visit

May to September