Maine Memory Network

Sarah Farmer was an advocate for peace in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Frank Hector Tompkins painted this portrait of Farmer and her dog, Barry, in 1891.

Farmer began summer programs in Eliot in 1894 for persons interested in the subjects of peace, religion, and philosophy. She eventually came to own the Green Acre property and bequeathed it to the Bahá’í Community in 1916.

Sarah Farmer travelled to Palestine in 1900 where she learned about and met with 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the imprisoned leader of the Bahá’í Faith. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá encouraged her to continue with her programs at Green Acre.

By 1901, Farmer was a declared member of the Bahá’í Faith. She found in the teachings of this new world religion the fulfillment of what she wanted Green Acre to embody: religious unity based on one God and one people, equality of men and women, racial justice, world peace and understanding.

Her Green Acre Conferences offered a free and open forum for conversations on social and religious subjects and became the focal meeting place for the emerging American Bahá’í community.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited Green Acre for one week in August of 1912. Hundreds of people from the surrounding local communities and across the United States traveled to Eliot to hear him speak. After Farmer died in 1916 the property passed into the possession of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada.

In 1890 Sarah Farmer and four Eliot businessmen opened the Eliot Hotel. Soon after its opening poet John Greenleaf Whittier renamed the Hotel "Green Acre on the Piscataqua."

In 1894 Farmer established summer sessions called "The Green Acre Conferences" which became so popular that the hotel inn overflowed and tents were added to house the guests.

This 1891 advertisement shows the Inn on its high promontory with the Piscataqua River flowing below. Farmer's family friend, Arthur W. Dow, a professor at the Pratt Institute in New York City, created the original drawing. Part of the advertisement’s description includes the following:

"The drainage and plumbing of the house are perfect. Among other comforts may be mentioned electric bells in all the rooms, bath rooms with hot and cold water on each floor and open fire places, rendering “GREEN-ACRE” one of the most homelike and cozy hotels in New England."

Sarah Farmer 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 interest in the local library through book readings and arranging for two summer fetes in 1888 and 1889 intended to raise funds. With an international theme, booths were decorated to represent different countries while young local women wearing international costumes sold ethnic foods and merchandise. Switzerland, Japan, Russia, France, Italy, and Turkey were some of the countries represented. To further support the Library she persuaded her close family friend and poet John Greenleaf Whittier to donate an entire collection of books.

In 1888 Sarah Farmer's mother, Hannah Farmer, opened Rosemary Cottage in Eliot for the benefit of overworked shopgirls and mothers with their children as a respite from the polluted conditions of the inner cities.

Hannah Farmer immediately gave the ownership of the cottage over to the Boston Missionary Society for its “Fresh Air Fund.” The Society managed the Rosemary Cottage facility until 1941.

Green Acre held programs every summer that included the study of intellectual and spiritual subjects, nature study and health.

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

The concluding years of the nineteenth century heralded a great upwelling of interest in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings, the Transcendentalist Movement, and concerns with social justice. Scientific and technological discoveries were also a source of great interest. The members of the Concord School of Philosophy and Literature spoke at many of Green Acre’s summer programs.

Initially, the Green Acre programs were held either beneath this great tent or under a stand of white pines. By the time this photograph was taken, around 1897, the Eirenion Hall had been built and served as the indoor venue for lectures, performances, and celebrations. Hundreds of people from all over the world attended these programs.
Author and Transcendentalist Franklin Benjamin Sanborn wrote of his experience 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."

Green Acre became known for animated summer conferences that offered a forum for dialogue on many subjects, including, but not limited to philosophies, Asian culture, and Eastern religions.

Farmer traveled throughout North America and Europe and brought together prominent writers, philosophers, musicians, performers of all kinds, social activists, and religious leaders to lecture at the summer sessions. Pictured here are four illustrious presenters: Charles Malloy, Swami Abhedananda from India, Ralph Waldo Trine and Charles Brodie Patterson.

According to modern-day author Leigh Eric Schmidt:

"It [Green Acre] was the last great bastion of Transcendentalism, a school of philosophy and art for Emersonians and Whitmanites; it was a New Thought proving ground for such leaders as Ralph Waldo Trine, Henry Wood, and Horatio Dresser; it was a hub for representatives of the Society of Ethical Culture, Theosophy, Buddhism, Reform Judaism, Vedanta, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith."

Franklin Benjamin Sanborn and Charles Malloy, members of the Concord School of Philosophy and Literature, were friends of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau and began visiting Green Acre during its second season. For many years they led discussions on Emerson, Thoreau and Transcendentalism, a philosophical movement that accentuated the spiritual and transcendental over the material and empirical.

Malloy penned the following poem to Sarah Farmer on her 57th birthday.

"We cannot say she’s nearer Heaven
Now she’s come to fifty-seven
I think indeed, we’d better say,
She’s been near Heaven all the way.

"For Heaven is not a distant star---
Heaven is Heaven in what we are,
And Heaven is Heaven in what we make it---
That’s why ‘tis easy to mistake it---
In making Heaven we live alone

"And everyone must make his own.

"If you would become a Heaven maker,
The place to begin is at Green Acre."

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."

Farmer travelled to Europe and the Mediterranean in January 1900. During this journey she visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the leader of the Bahá’í Faith in Palestine.

In 1901, Farmer, now a declared member of the Bahá’í Faith, returned to Green Acre, continued to promote her conferences and used this quotation from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 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…"

‘Abdu’l-Bahá 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 1909 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was released from prison after the Young Turk Revolution and in 1912 he fulfilled this promise to her.

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

She created the first known "Peace Flag" and raised it when the Green Acre Conferences began in 1894. 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.

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.

It is believed that 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 Bahá’í Faith, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 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.

'Abdu'l-Bahá and Sarah Farmer are shown riding in an automobile on the Green Acre property in 1912. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá 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."

Hundreds of people gathered to hear ‘Abdu’l-Bahá speak during that week in August of 1912. This program introduced him by saying,

"Abdul Baha Abbas, the illustrious Persian teacher, who is visiting America, is expected to arrive at Green Acre on Friday afternoon, August 16. A Reception will be held in his honor Friday evening in the Eirenion. All the people are welcomed...His interpreters are constantly on hand, and those seeking private interviews will be cordially welcomed. Spread the Good News!”

During one of his talks he told those gathered, “I will pray for you that you may become the cause of upraising the lights of God. May everyone point to you and ask, “Why are these people so happy?” I want you to be happy in Green Acre, to laugh, smile and rejoice in order that others may be made happy by you. I will pray for you."

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

'Abdu'l-Bahá traveled across North America giving talks along the way; talks that were met with a fervor of interest at all levels of society, from the New York City newspaper boys, ministers, and educators to the wealthiest socialites and statesmen of Washington, DC.

After Farmer died on November 23, 1916 the Green Acre property passed into the possession of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States and Canada. Today, Green Acre remains the "great center," and "the cause of the unity of the world of humanity" that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Farmer hoped it would be.