Bit of History

The original farmhouse built in 1777, the traditional cape structure at the left of the photo, was purchased by Peter King in 1840 and extensively remodeled. The same year the sturdy barn behind the house was framed from trees felled on the property and notched together without a single nail. Some of the granite steps and walkways from that time are still in use today. As the extended King family prospered, large tracts of adjoining land and additional houses were built over the 1800's. Peter King again enlarged his own house in 1860, adding the right third of the house and a porch on the far side that unfortunately no longer exists. There are pictures of the family and the house archived in the historical conservation collection at the Jones Library. Flat Hills Road used to be known as King Street until about 1900, and the five oldest houses on the street where all built by members of the King family.

Apartment/share available at 381

Full kitchen

Baseboard heat, nice big windows, paint and carpeting less than one year old.

Big closet plus additional storage available.

Private entrance

Good-sized living room w/furniture/tv/dvr. Sunny during the day, modern lighting for evening.

Shower/tub

Yard, view outside the front door. Parking area is  up and around the side of the house.

Pictures from the farmhouse at 371: 

Dining room:

View from dining room window, looking south out through the porch:

 View from dining room window, looking north:

Field and paddocks out behind house pasture about a dozen horses (Callie in the foreground, Tommy rolling in the distance):

One of a pair of Piliated Woodpeckers that live in the sugar maples in the yard:

Sugar maple and apple trees planted by the King family over 200 years ago.

Stillpoint, the name of the farm, is from the poem Burnt Norton poem by T.S. Eliot:

 ...At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

...After the kingfisher's wing
Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still
At the still point of the turning world.

The 'stillpoint' is the meeting of opposites held in perfect balance, a wonderful evocation of the importance of place in a choatic world. And when the 'dance' referred to in the poem  is performed with a horse we call it 'dressage'--though come to think of it maybe the hunter-jumpers and the reining champs with a philosophical bent would invoke a stillpoint concept at the heart of their riding disciplines as well.

But the name Stillpoint Farm is also a bit of an inside joke, a reference to a source of income (and dubious reputation) for the North Amherst branch of the King family. In the early 1900's they distilled hard cider using an industrial-sized press housed in a mill powered by a dam built at the base of pastureland that had once been an extensive apple orchard. Remnants of the building and rusty machinary still remain just beyond the far treeline. Cider Mill Pond and surrounding acres having been purchased as conservation land by the town of Amherst in 1989.

View from the 371 property looking out onto the rest of the farm:

The Connolly family's house was built in 1990 out behind the original farmhouse. The indoor riding arena was built in 1992. The outdoor area was built in 1998 on the far side of the back pasture.