Anne and Joe Duncan have owned the 12-acre farm since 1991 – passed from Anne’s Aunt Margaret. The house dates to the 1840s and earliest relative to own the property was Anne’s Great Uncle Fred, who purchased the farm in 1915.

Which  included “the land and all buildings, one cow and calf, 20 hens, carriages, sleds, hay harnesses and farming tools.” Back then the farm buildings included the main house, a carriage house, chicken coop, the main barn, an ice house and a horse barn. The horse barn and ice house were originally located just south of the main barn, but wasted away in the 1920s. The existing structure consists of two additions brought onto the property and joined to the main house in the 1860s.

The carriage house and barn were built in 1866 and 1867 respectively, when Judge Austin O. Gallup owned the property. The judge lived on the farm from 1851 until he died in 1896.

Both of these buildings are timber-framed structures with American chestnut posts and beams and pine siding.

In 1919 Uncle Fred passed the property to his niece, Alice and her husband Edward (Anne’s grandparents)  Uncle Fred remained on the property until he passed away in 1933. Alice and Edward managed a small dairy herd on the farm beginning in the 1920s,  the last of the dairy herd left the farm in the 1970s. The served the town of Salem – Alice as the Judge of Probate and Edward as the First Selectman.

Edward passed the property on to his daughter Margaret (Anne’s aunt) died in 1981

Anne and Joe Duncan married in 1973, shortly after Joe graduated from the Coast Guard Academy. They traveled around the country to Joe’s various duty assignments until he retired from active duty in 1995. Anne and Joe established The Salem Herbfarm on the old homestead as a retail plant nursery in 1997. They completed a lengthy restoration project on the old barn in 1998 and converted it into the Judge Austin Gallup Gift Barn. The original 1867 chestnut structure remains clearly visible throughout, and although the exterior siding has been replaced, the original pine, board and batten siding graces the interior walls of the old barn.

In 2015 Anne and Joe closed the plant nursery and begin the process of converting the old homestead over to a wedding and event venue. The barn renovations included: extending the main barn 15 feet south to accomodate a larger dining capacity; removing the entire floor structure and replacing it with one up to current code; and adding two, large handicap accessible bathrooms, a bride’s changing room, a catering setup and serving room and a new rear entrance.

A quick tour of the barn will tell you that as much “old stuff” as possible from the farm was reused in the barn restoration. For example: the original pine, board and batten exterior siding and the old oak, shiplap flooring were reused as interior siding on the walls; and 160 year old, strap hinges were used on all of the recycled pine, restroom doors. The old tools, horse tack, lanterns, license plates, dog tags and other memorabilia hanging around here and there and a big, copper tank plumbed into the bathrooms.

 In another few years, when the arborvitae that completely encircle the venue grow to their expected height of 10 to 20 feet, The Salem Herbfarm Event Venue will just disappear into its own little world.