Hallock Farm stood on the Lincoln-Huntington Road in the town of Starksboro, Vermont, in Addison County. The property lay approximately three miles west of Glen Ellen Lodge on the Long Trail, accessible from the trail by a blazed side path descending through the western foothills of the Green Mountains. The approach from the Long Trail followed Dwyer Road north from the hamlet of Jerusalem and then turned west, crossing Hallock Brook to reach the Lincoln-Huntington Road; the farm was situated roughly a quarter mile north along that road from the brook crossing.
The surrounding landscape was that of the Champlain Valley edge — working farmland tucked below the Green Mountain ridgeline, connected by dirt roads to the villages of Bristol and Hanksville. Starksboro itself was a small hill town, settled in the late eighteenth century and home to several farming families whose names persisted in local geography. The Hallock family was among the established names of the area, with the Brown Hill Cemetery in the vicinity also known as the Hallock Cemetery, reflecting the family’s long-standing roots in the community.
The Hallock Family and the Farm
The farm was operated during the 1920s by Mrs. Andrew Hallock, who offered room and board to Long Trail hikers passing through or descending from the mountains above. Andrew E. Hallock (1871–1940) was a Starksboro resident whose family had ties to the area extending back generations; he is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Bristol. During the years the farm appears in Long Trail guidebooks, Mrs. Hallock managed the hosting of hikers as proprietor.
The farm’s contact information as listed in the Long Trail Guide Book was: Box 28, R.F.D. No. 1, Starksboro, Vermont. Telephone service was available through the Bristol central exchange on telephone number 62-4. For hikers arriving by automobile — or needing a ride — Mrs. Hallock offered to send a car to meet guests at Bristol, eight miles distant, or at Hanksville, three miles away.
Role in the Long Trail System
By 1928, the GMC reported maintaining some twenty-six camps along the Long Trail, supplemented by roughly eleven farmhouses and hotels at which meals and lodging could be obtained. Hallock Farm was among this second category — a private accommodation that extended the practical range of the trail’s hospitality network into the western farmland below the ridge.
The blazed side trail connecting the Long Trail to Hallock Farm allowed hikers to leave the main ridge near Glen Ellen Lodge, descend approximately three miles to the farm, and return to the trail the following day. This kind of in-and-out approach to roadside lodging was characteristic of how early Long Trail hikers integrated private farms into their itineraries, and the blazed access trail was maintained specifically to facilitate these visits.
Guidebook Listing
Hallock Farm first appears in the 6th edition of the Long Trail Guide Book (1924), listed on page 29 among accommodations accessible from the northern Long Trail. It continued to appear in the 7th edition (1928, page 29) and the 8th edition (1930, page 24). The listing’s disappearance after the 8th edition — the farm is not documented in subsequent editions — suggests that by the early 1930s the farm was no longer available as a hiker accommodation. Whether this reflects the death or retirement of Mrs. Hallock, the improving network of GMC camps in the area that reduced dependence on private lodging, or some other circumstance is not documented in available sources.
Sources
Long Trail Guide Books
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 6th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1924. P. 29.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 7th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1928. P. 29.
Green Mountain Club. Long Trail Guide Book. 8th ed. Green Mountain Club, 1930. P. 24.
