Our History

Tranquillity Farm was a historic summer estate located on Tranquility Road in Middlebury Connecticut. The estate was developed in the 1890s by industrialist John H. Whittemore, with architectural design by the noted firm of McKim, Mead, & White, and landscape design by Charles Eliot and Warren Manning. Tranquillity Farm occupied over 300 acres on the east side of Lake Quassapaug, west of Middlebury’s town center. 

The estate’s landscape featured broad meadows with expansive views over the lake, and stone walls lining the roadways. There are several clusters of buildings that still dot this landscape, At the northern end of the property, there is one of New England’s largest remaining well preserved chestnut beam cow barns. It is flanked by the Creamery, which is a quaint stone-walled building where milk and dairy products were sold to the public. Next to that is the farm superintendent’s house, a quaint shingled old New England building. To the west of that is the Garage barn which was and is still used as the farm workshop. At the southern end of the property are the buildings of the former True Quality Farm and the estate’s working farmyards.

Prominent among these buildings are the white chicken barn and the Bullpen as well as the former farmhouse, a Federal-period gable-roofed building. Presently, we own approximately 44 acres of the original estate. Seventeen acres are planted with 16,000 grape-producing vines. There are seven varieties- 3 red and four white. The buildings have been and will be restored and repurposed to be used by Tranquillity Vineyard and Winery. The chicken pot pie processing building will become the winemaking and wine storage area for the winery. The beautiful white silo which is attached to the white barn will be attached to this building as well. The white barn and silo as well as the Bullpen will now be used for wine tastings for guests.