Weir Farm National Historic Site
| Weir Farm National Historic Site | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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| Location | 735 Nod Hill Road Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States |
| Nearest city | Wilton, CT |
| Coordinates | 41°15′29″N 73°27′17″W / 41.25806°N 73.45472°WCoordinates: 41°15′29″N 73°27′17″W / 41.25806°N 73.45472°W |
| Area | 60 acres (24 ha) |
| Established | 1990 |
| Visitors | 34,802 (in 2014) |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
| Website | Weir Farm National Historic Site |
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.
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.
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.
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