Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1176984
63 the road, you look out over 110 acres of quintessential New England farmland complete with split-rail fences and rustic stone walls. Look closer and you'll see horses, cows, donkeys, goats, chickens, and even a few alpacas. When the farm's original owner, art patron Evelyn For- tune Bartlett, died in 1997 at the age of 109, she left the property in the care of The Trustees of Reservations. Bartlett, called "something of an eccentric" in her New York Times obituary, was passionate about garden- ing and farming. The current owner, Meghan Dono- van, is not, but farming meant the world to her late husband, John, who passed away much too young, and she is determined to honor that which he held dear. "It really was a true passion of his, and I love that the kids get to share it," she says of her elementary school–age daughter and son. As for tending to the animals, that's the bailiwick of a farm manager. The setting is beautiful and the menagerie endear- ing, but the main house on the property when the couple bought it was neither. "The chopped-up layout had small rooms and low ceilings," notes designer Kristina Crestin, who was brought in to collaborate with architect Sheldon Pennoyer and general contrac- tor Covenant LLC. Instead of renovating the existing house, with its ill-conceived 1990s additions, Pennoy- er recommended building a new house on the other side of the barn. "The property never had a house that met the stand- Anyone driving along Southern Avenue in Essex can't help but admire the bucolic splendor of Bothways Farm. At a particular turn in