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But for many people looking to shoot a classic Vermont scene, it also checks a lot of boxes. The advent of mobile photography and the rise of Instagram have certainly played a part in its popularity. In 2015 Perry put the place on the market for $3.1 million before changing his mind and deciding to keep it.įred Doten says that it’s only been in the past 10 to 15 years that Sleepy Hollow has become such a magnet for photographers. The property consists of 115 acres and includes the original Cape and a heated six-stall barn with loft/studio that’s connected to the house, as well as a pond, a guest house and a log cabin that rests on a ridge with fantastic views of the surrounding hills. Several years ago Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry and his wife, Billie, made Sleepy Hollow their Vermont retreat. The current owner of the farm is also its most well known. Edward took care of the grounds of the Rockefeller home, while his wife managed the house.Īnd their former farm - which would come to be known as Sleepy Hollow - passed through the hands of a few different owners over the next few decades. Maybe they were just tired of the work, says Fred, or perhaps they sensed that small farms like theirs were on borrowed time: Several decades ago eight small working farms lined Cloudland Road, but today only two remain.Įdward and Elsie moved on to work for Laurance Rockefeller, the famous philanthropist and conservationist who had deep ties to Woodstock. Doten eggs were delivered to homes around Woodstock and Pomfret.īut in the 1950s, Edward and Elsie, both well into middle age, decided to leave farming. They had a milking herd and a large flock of chickens. His older cousin, Edward, and his wife, Elsie, owned the farm that John Doten had built. “When it was time to hay, we’d head over to our cousins’ place and help load up the wagons and fill the silos,” recalls Fred Doten, Samuel’s great-great-great grandson, who resides in the same house and works the same land that generations before him did.įred Doten and his wife, Nancy, in the kitchen of their home, which is next to Sleepy Hollow Farm. The lands were connected by pastures, and Dotens played and worked together. There was little demarcation between the two properties. Over the next century and a half, both Doten farms remained in the family. John built his place on a stretch of land that sat just below the road and his brother’s home. Samuel constructed a farmhouse on a rise of land, with views of the nearby hills and the growing town of Woodstock. When the Doten brothers arrived in Vermont, they built neighboring farms. Not surprisingly, they called their new home New Pomfret it was later shortened to Pomfret. Over the next few years, others from Durkee’s hometown followed him, including the Doten brothers. The area that would come to be known as Pomfret, Vermont, was chartered in 1761, and nine years later Bartholomew Durkee, a native of Pomfret, Connecticut, became its first settler.

The story of Sleepy Hollow Farm goes back to the late 1780s, when two young brothers from Connecticut, Samuel and John Doten, left the family farm for a new life in central Vermont. The History of Vermont’s Sleepy Hollow Farm

“I saw a photo of the farm while we were at Niagara Falls, and I told my wife I had to photograph it,” he explained.Īt one time as many as 25 people crowded around the top of Sleepy Hollow’s drive to photograph the landscape.Īutumn shutterbugs at Sleepy Hollow Farm. A young father who’d driven from Los Angeles with his wife and their three children, including a 3-month-old. A group of Vietnamese photographers from southern California. A man from Pennsylvania who got ribbed for wearing an Orioles jacket in Red Sox country. I had to get these pictures before I head home.” “There is nothing like this in China,” he said. He had left Boston at 3 in the morning to see the farm at sunrise. Lin Go, a biologist from China who had been living in Boston during the past year, was already walking the road to study the setting, waiting for first light. It was still dark, and I figured I’d be the first visitor.

During my visit, I arrived just before 6 a.m.