Maine Memory Network

An advertisement for the Inn at Green Acre with pencil drawings of the Inn and the shore along the river, the Piscataqua.

The Inn began as the Eliot Hotel, but soon after opening the poet John Greenleaf Whittier renamed the Inn "Green Acre on the Piscataqua."

Portrait of Sarah Jane Farmer of Eliot and her dog, Barry, painted in 1891 by Frank Hector Tompkins (1847-1922).

Sarah Farmer was an advocate for peace in the late 19th, and early 20th century.

She began a summer retreat program in Eliot for persons interested in the subjects of peace, religion, and philosophy. She owned the Eliot Hotel, later to be named Green Acre, and bequeathed the property to the Baha'i community.

Sarah and her parents were philanthropists and sought, wherever they were living, to upraise the downtrodden and to promote learning.

To this end, Sarah was instrumental in reviving the Eliot Library Association, raising funds and organizing two summer fetes. She persuaded her close family friend John Greenleaf Whitter to donate an entire collection of books.

In the 1880s Sarah's mother, Hannah Farmer, invited unwed mothers and their children to spend the summers at Rosemary Cottage in Eliot, to give them a respite from the hot and polluted summers in the city.

Green Acre held programs every summer that included the study of intellectual and spiritual subjects. Sarah Farmer's parents, Moses Gerrish Farmer and Hannah Tobey Shapleigh Farmer, were Transcendentalists and many talks were given on that subject.

Charles Malloy, the speaker mentioned on this program, was a member of the Concord School of Philosophy as well as president of the Boston Emerson Society.

The end of the nineteenth century heralded a great upwelling of interest in different philosophies, Asian culture, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings, the transcendentalist movement, and social consciousness. Scientific and technological discoveries were a source of great interest.

Green Acre became known for animated summer conferences that offered a forum for dialogue on many subjects. Farmer traveled throughout North America as well as Europe and brought together prominent writers, philosophers, musicians, performers of all kinds, social activists, and religious leaders to lecture at the summer sessions.

Franklin Sanborn, author and member of the Concord School of Philosophy and Literature, wrote of the experience of visiting Green Acre,

"As is well known, each succeeding summer has found visitors here from the most distant parts of the Earth…The picturesque aspect borne in past seasons by the large audiences of searchers after truth as they assemble themselves together in the large "Peace" tent, in the "Eirenion" or under the Lysekloster pines, was [an] effect produced by the intermingling of elegantly clad Orientals in their native flowing robes of bright fabrics, from far away India, China, and Japan, with the more somber attire of our own people and visitors from England and various other European countries."

Horatio Dresser, follower of New Thought and a Swedenborgian minister in Maine wrote of Green Acre,

"It is indeed a unique experience to be one of a throng of people gathered on the hill at sunset, while the Parsee chants a native hymn, or someone reads from one of our own poets. And after one has heard Emerson expounded underneath the pines, or listened to the Swami setting forth in his quiet way the venerable doctrines of Vedanta, one is ready to exclaim that there are no such woods anywhere outside of Greenacre."

Sarah Farmer, with three friends, travelled to Europe and the Mediterranean in January 1900 visiting Acre, Palestine to meet with 'Abdu'l-Baha, the leader of the Baha’i Faith.

'Abdu'l-Baha encouraged her to continue with her programs at Green Acre and told her if ever released from imprisonment by the Ottoman Empire, He would visit Green Acre.

In 1901, Farmer, now a declared member of the Baha'i Faith, returned to Green Acre, continued to promote her conferences and used this quotation from 'Abdu'l-Baha on a conference program:

"Good tidings to you! Good tidings to you! Awake! Awake! For in a short time these fragrances, which give life to the soul, shall be diffused and the lights, which disperse the darkness, shall shine universally…"

A subject close to Farmer's heart was world peace, and she often featured speakers and programs at Green Acre on peace.

She created the first known "Peace Flag" and raised it in the courtyard. In August 1904, as the Russo-Japanese war raged, a rousing program at Green Acre included the great operatic singer Emma Thursby in Japanese clothing, singing the national anthem of Japan, followed by Mary Burnham Moore leading the audience in the national anthem of Russia. All stood as they sang with the collective hope that the two nations might soon find peace.

A year later, Portsmouth, New Hampshire was chosen as the site of negotiations for a treaty to end the war. President Theodore Roosevelt invited delegates from Russia and Japan to consult at the Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard, only a few miles from Green Acre.

Farmer was the only woman present to witness the signing of the Treaty.

One of the great joys of Farmer's life came when the leader of the Baha'i Faith, 'Abdu'l-Baha, visited Green Acre and stayed at the Inn from August 16-23, 1912. He gave numerous talks and interviews on subjects such as the unity of God, the unity of all religions, and the unity of humankind.

Hundreds of people gathered to hear 'Abdu'l-Baha speak.

Maine newspapers sent reporters to cover and report about the substance of these talks, including the Republican Lewiston Evening Journal and the Biddeford Weekly Journal.

'Abdu'l-Baha’s travels across North America were met with a fervor of interest at all levels of society, from the New York City newspaper, boys, ministers, educators and statesmen to the wealthiest socialites of Washington, DC.

'Abdu'l-Baha said of Green Acre, "This is a delightful spot; the scenery is beautiful, and an atmosphere of spirituality haloes everything. In the future, God willing, Green Acre shall become a great center, the cause of the unity of the world of humanity, the cause of uniting hearts and binding together the East and the West. This is my hope." – Excerpt from a talk on August 17, 1912.

The Green Acre Conferences offered a free and open forum for conversations on social and religious subjects, and became a focal point for the American Baha'i community, acting as a meeting place for individual believers and the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada.

After Farmer died on November 23, 1916 the property passed into the possession of the National Baha'i community and remains, as of 2018, the "great center," and "the cause of the unity of the world of humanity" that 'Abdu'l-Baha hoped it would be.