In 1928, the author Sinclair Lewis and his wife, the journalist Dorothy Thompson, bought an 18th-century farmhouse on 300 acres of land outside Barnard, Vermont. The couple held onto the property, which they called Twin Farms—and where they’d hosted some of the era’s most artists and thinkers at their legendary parties—until 1958, when they sold it. In the years following, Twin Farms would change hands (and names) a number of times; then, in 1978, the philanthropist Thurston Twigg-Smith bought Twin Farms, first to be a family retreat, and later to serve as a bed-and-breakfast. What Twigg-Smith began nearly 50 years ago still exists today; Twin Farms is an award-winning, 28-key destination tucked into a bucolic corner of the Green Mountain State and popular year-round for everything from snow sports to flyfishing and leaf peeping—and, of course, its exquisitely elevated all-inclusive offerings.
“Twin Farms has always been about this ability to really connect with people,” says John Graham, the property’s managing director. “Twigg set out to create something that really allowed for that. He was never after being the biggest, he was trying to create a space that could allow for true connectivity. That’s the aspiration of Twin Farms to this day; the approach might not always be the best business model, but it’s the best model for the kind of hospitality we provide.”
Here, Graham tells T&C about his own favorite room on property.
What do you consider to be the best room at the property and why?
I have to go with the Treehouse, and it's a biased answer because that was something I knew when I walked in the door almost 14 years ago was missing. When we built it, we thought we were going to reach young parents who wanted an escape for the weekend, but we realized very quickly that it had universal appeal because the rooms are unexpected and playful, but also beautiful. They celebrate what makes Vermont so appealing—the fact that it’s largely untouched—by eliminating distractions. We designed the room to bring the bed close to the windows and offer a feeling that you’re falling asleep in the stars and waking up in the trees. There’s something so special about the sanctity of space.
How much does it cost per night?
$4,050 per night, all inclusive.
How would you describe the guests and vibe at the hotel?
There's a demographic answer to that, that they're 45 years old, that they're largely from the New York Metro or Boston area, they are primarily couples. But in reality, it's spread out; we have guests from their late twenties all the way into their early seventies, and they exist in equal measure in each of those spaces. They’re here to disconnect from the reality of the world and reconnect with themselves, reconnect with their partners, reconnect with nature, reconnect with the present. Everything is done with intention here; everything has a purpose. We are centered on your moment, we are acknowledging the singularity of this space, and we have no intention of being compared to anybody else. Twin Farms is, in our mind, a unique experience that has an aspiration to leave you transformed; to receive you in one way and to have you leave in another.
What feeling about Vermont do you hope to impart to guests?
You can't do this anywhere else. And I think that's part of my message about singularity. There will not be another one because we're in Vermont and part of our DNA is the celebration of just that. Vermont is such a purposeful place. I just interviewed a candidate today who said choosing to be here. He was a former general manager of some prominent places, and he wants to be the assistant food and beverage managers four or five steps back from a career standpoint. He said it doesn't matter. What I want to do is be here. What I want to do is be a part of this purposeful way of life. And when you spend some time in Vermont, you realize that Vermonters are by and large that. They are people that have made a choice to live a certain way, to live in the present, to recognize the impact that they're having on the future and make decisions that make sense.
What’s a local attraction that you always recommend?
You could go fly fishing in any of the rivers—at the right time, it’s a magical moment that you’ll take with you for the rest of your life. I would go into [the nearby town of] Woodstock, which is extraordinary and looks like it looked 50 years ago, and I’d go to F. H. Gillingham & Sons general store, where you’ll find three-inch nails sitting next to fine wines.
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