The barn at South Road Farm seen across the field at dusk, storm clouds overhead
The wooden ceremony arch Dave built by hand, standing on the ceremony lawn at South Road Farm

2022

A wedding that
started everything.

Nick got married at a barn venue in the fall of 2022. Something about it stayed with him — not just the day, but the setting itself. The way a farm holds a celebration differently. The light through old timber. The feeling that the land was already doing something no amount of decor could replicate.

When South Road Farm came up a short time later — sixty acres, two barns, a farmhouse, and a lot that needed attention — he recognized something in it. Not what it was, but what it had been. And what it could become again.

Nick's brother-in-law Dave had built the wooden arch for that first wedding himself — not commissioned, just made, as a gift. That arch now stands on the ceremony lawn here. It went up before the barns were finished, before most of what you see now existed. The arch that opened one chapter became the first thing built for this one.

Dave on scaffolding framing the barn roof against an open summer sky

The Restoration

Years of work.
Most of it Dave.

In the years since, Dave has put this property back together piece by piece. Both barns. The farmhouse. Every deck, every threshold, every beam that needed attention. Largely himself, by hand — the kind of work that takes years and can't be faked when it's done.

Midway through, a once-in-a-generation windstorm took the entire roof off one of the barns. Not the shingles — the roof. All of the timber framing, the beams. They looked at what was left, figured out what needed to happen, and rebuilt.

Nobody contracted this out. When it's your own property, your own name on it, you don't cut corners on the joist you'll never see again. When the people doing the work are the same people who will stand in it at a wedding, the work comes out differently.

Dick Bragg on his tractor helping with land work at South Road Farm

The Community

Nobody
asked them to.

The work brought people. Dick Bragg, who lives on the adjacent land, has shown up season after season with his tractor — moving material, clearing land, putting in more pro bono hours than any person should. Bob Black grew up on this property decades before Nick and Dave arrived. He appeared at the door one evening when the basement flooded — generator and pump in his truck, nobody called him.

Josh Heck, a jack-of-all-trades from the next town over, has been working alongside Dave several days a week throughout the long, final stretch of work. He keeps going even when Dave isn't there. He's taken this project up nearly as his own.

Dyanna Lincoln's aunt and uncle, Tom and Sylvia Andrews, farmed this land through its final years as a working farm. Dyanna got married here. She's also the reason the timeline below exists — she dug up most of it.

The Land

1793.
Still farming.

Joseph Watson settled this hundred acres on July 4, 1793. The post-and-beam framing that still stands in the barn went up in the early 1800s. The granite foundation was hauled by oxen from quarries in Jay, Maine. The farm ran continuously from the late 1700s until 2018 — longer than Maine has been a state.

1791 First recorded deed, county of Lincoln
July 4, 1793 Joseph Watson settles the westerly 100 acres and builds the first dwelling
Early 1800s Post-and-beam construction — still standing. Granite foundation hauled by oxen from quarries in Jay, Maine
1900s Harris family: cattle, oxen, and hard cider from the apple orchard. A blacksmith's shop that still stands today
1948 Electricity comes to the farm for the first time
1998–2018 Tom and Sylvia Andrews — the last family to farm this land continuously
Now South Road Farm — restored, open for one weekend at a time
The VW bus bar and Portland Board bus set up in the courtyard during cocktail hour

Ready to Talk?

Your weekend
starts here.

South Road Farm is available May through October. We keep bookings limited to keep every weekend personal. Reach out and we'll send availability, pricing, and next steps.

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