On Sunday DCR Historic Preservation Planner Kevin Allen and DCR Interpretive Coordinator Alec Coordinator opened up the Hawley Farm Abattoir with a tour of the history of this fascinating historic farm with locals sharing stories as well as past DCR rangers including Connie Ohlman and also historian Bernie Drew. Some history below courtesy of the Sandisfield Times and Ron.
HISTORIC SANDISFIELD FARM BUILDINGS COME DOWN
By Ron Bernard
Overcast skies and damp, freezing conditions prevailed in the first days of 2026 when a dinosaur-like excavator chomped its way through four venerable if dilapidated buildings, all survivors of the former Adams-Hawley-Rowley farm and mill on Cold Spring Road in the Beech Plain section.
The 900-acre property, along the shores of Lower Spectacle Pond, was “taken” by the Commonwealth by eminent domain in 2007 and incorporated into Otis State Forest for the purposes of preservation and public use.
In this heritage-rich state, the place was remarkably significant in Massachusetts history for several reasons, but one in particular. It may have been the longest continuously operated farm under the same family ownership 1760s-1970s.
The centerpieces of a group of surviving buildings included a farmhouse and a section of an English-style barn, both pre-Revolution. Another house across the road and two utility buildings were early-to-mid century. Also, there is an abattoir (slaughterhouse), c.1820s. Several 20th century summer cabins on the pond also survive albeit in ramshackle condition. Ultimately only the abattoir will remain.
Matriarch Ruth Snow Rowley was the last family member to reside on the property. She died in 2004 at age 93. Her descendants had dramatically different ideas about what should be done with the place, ranging from preservation to development. After a builder stepped in with approved plans for modern upscale houses around the pond, the State, with consent of the Sandisfield Select Board (a two-to-one vote) moved to purchase the estate. By then, except for Mrs. Rowley’s house, none of the buildings had been in service or maintained since the family concluded its sawmill operations almost thirty years before.
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