Greenwood Farm (Ipswich, Massachusetts)

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Greenwood Farm is a historic property and nature reserve in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It covers 216 acres of gardens, pastures, meadows, woodlands, and salt marsh, and is owned by The Trustees of Reservations. The farm features the Paine House, a First Period saltbox built in 1694 by Robert Paine Jr.

The land sits on Jeffreys Neck (also called Great Neck) in the northern part of Ipswich, a area surrounded by the Eagle Hill River, the Ipswich River, and Plum Island Sound. Long before European settlers arrived, the Pawtucket people lived here and called the nearby village Agawam.

History in brief: Around 1623, William Jeffrey established a fishing post on the neck and gave the area its name. In 1633, Robert Coles received land nearby in Ipswich. By 1640, Robert Paine Sr. owned farmland in the area, and his son Robert Paine Jr. built the Paine House in 1694.

Over the years, the property passed through several families, including the Smith and Willcomb families and then Thomas Smith Greenwood. Pauline Greenwood was the last of the Smith descendants to own the farm. In 1911, Guy Murchie bought it, followed by Robert Gray Dodge in 1916. In 1975, the Dodge family handed the property to The Trustees of Reservations, and after Sally Dodge’s death in 1993 Greenwood Farm opened to the public.

The Paine House is a well-preserved First Period home on its original site. It uses a traditional rafter and purlin roof frame and features decorative shadow moldings. A portion of the basement was used as a dairy, and the interior includes 17th–19th-century pieces collected by later owners.

In 2002, a dendrochronology study confirmed the house was built in 1694. Today, Greenwood Farm is a public nature and history site with its historic Paine House museum.