Menu 0


The History of Spring Rock Farm

In 1790, Spring-Rock Farm was built on historic Parker Hill, overlapping Springfield and Rockingham Vermont.


Of note in 1790:

  • President George Washington gave his first State of the Union Address
  • The Supreme Court convened for the first time in NYC
  • In October, New York State gave up its claims to Vermont for $30,000, paving the way for Vermont to enter the union as the fourteenth state

In her book, Hamlet in the Hills, Gladness Wharton Luce wrote “Parker Hill, Vermont, is typical of many small New England settlements which enjoyed their moment of importance and then disappeared”.

Today, Parker Hill District is a National Historic Site, consisting of 25 buildings built in the late 1700s and early 1800s that supported this farming community.

Father Peter Fletcher and son David completed the so-called Fletcher-Tanner farm in 1790. David’s family quickly outgrew their half of the house with ten sons and a daughter of their own, so they took over both kitchens in the house along with eight fireplaces, a smoke chamber, and a country ballroom on the second floor.


The Fletcher family resided here for 96 years, when Frink Fletcher’s widow (son of David), sold the house to George Tanner in 1885. In 1795, David’s wife, Sally Lovell, planted the white lilac from her parents’ nearby farm by the east entrance. It stands there to this day.  

During the Fletcher’s time, Moses Eaton Sr. took his wagon up the Connecticut River Valley and stenciled the front entrance of the Fletcher’s home, along with several other houses on Parker Hill.  

George Tanner started the heirloom apple orchard and maintained a dairy herd using all three barns on the site, until the early 1920s.

Plumbing and electricity were added in the 1960s by the Luce family. The Stillman family added the first well water in 2005.

The Patinkin family has operated the farm since 2006, and has lovingly reconstructed the barns and fields to accommodate our Vermont Wagyu beef operation on Parker Hill.

OUR FARM

SHOP NOW

FARM PRACTICES