Nearest city Wilton, CT Governing body National Park Service Phone +1 203-834-1896 Management National Park Service | Visitors 34,802 (in 2014) Area 79 ha Established 1990 | |
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Location 735 Nod Hill Road
Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States Website Weir Farm National Historic Site Address 735 Nod Hill Rd, Wilton, CT 06897, USA Hours Closed now Sunday10AM–4PMMondayClosedTuesdayClosedWednesday10AM–4PMThursday10AM–4PMFriday(Good Friday)10AM–4PMHours might differSaturday10AM–4PMSuggest an edit Similar Seth Low Pierrepont State Par, Putnam Memorial State Park, Marsh‑Billings‑Rockefeller National Historical, Devil's Den Preserve, Collis P Huntington State Park Profiles | ||
Weir Farm National Historic Site is located in Ridgefield and Wilton, Connecticut. It commemorates the life and work of American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site or lived there, to include Childe Hassam, Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Singer Sargent, and John Twachtman.
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Weir Farm is one of two sites in the National Park Service devoted to the visual arts, along with Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site.
Both sites maintain ongoing artist-in-residence programs; to date, the Weir Farm Art Center (formerly the Weir Farm Trust) has hosted more than 150 artists for monthlong stays at the site. Weir Farm also runs an ongoing "Take Part in Art" program, under which visitors can create their own works on site.
Weir Farm will be recognized on the 52nd quarter in 2020 as part of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.
Weir farm national historic site
History
After considering the Keene Valley area of New York's Adirondack Mountains for a rural retreat, in 1882 Weir settled instead on hilly countryside in the Branchville section of Ridgefield, acquiring a 153-acre farm there from Erwin Davis in exchange for $10 and a painting. Weir and artists he hosted subsequently produced a large number of paintings depicting Ridgefield landscapes and other nearby countryside.
Weir's daughter Dorothy Weir, a noted artist in her own right, took over management of the property following her father's death in 1919. Sculptor Mahonri Young would build a second studio at Weir Farm after the couple married in 1931.
Artist Sperry Andrews would later purchase the property and lead efforts to preserve the Weir Farm site, resulting in the U.S. government designating it a National Historic Site in 1990.
The property today includes 16 buildings on 60 acres of land with the grounds including a hiking trail. Tours are offered by National Park Service rangers.
In 2007, the U.S. Department of the Interior sought Congressional approval for the National Park Service to acquire space in nearby Redding, Connecticut for administration and operational support to Weir Farm. Under existing federal law at the time, the National Park Service was authorized to secure expansion space in Ridgefield and Wilton only.