Allen Farm Sheep and Wool Company

Martha’s Vineyard’s oldest continuously working family farm, the Allen Farm in Chilmark consists of 100 acres of rolling pastures and meadows bounded by historic stonewalls, upper Chilmark Pond and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Jonathan Allen originally purchased the farm in 1762, and ten years later his oldest son, Tristram, built the timber-framed farmhouse, which still sits just off of South Road in Chilmark. We restored the house in 1998, incorporating grey water and Clivus Multrum composting systems into the ancient fabric of the historic structure. The farmhouse and all its attendant outbuildings are very representative of the heritage of traditional New England farmsteads. In 1975 Clarissa Allen, then in her early twenties, inherited the farm and together with her husband Mitchell Posin, they began the difficult and challenging task of bringing to fruition their vision for a viable and sustainable working farm.