Tour the Ayres/Knuth Farm 

The Ayres/Knuth Farm is located at the juncture of Cooper Road and Route 10, in Denville, New Jersey. Comprised of 51.8 acres, approximately half of which are under cultivation, the farm complex includes the main house and nine outbuildings. The property reaches its highest elevation at the center, and the terrain rolls gradually down to farmland at the north and wetlands to the south. Here, along a small stream, are located a stone spring house and the ruins of a nineteenth century dam. On the south side of the stream are the stone foundations of the Ayres’ family distillery, and to the west are the remains of a trout pond constructed during the early twentieth century. (Photograph 1) Hundreds of rounded “pudding” stones dot this uncleared portion of the property, left behind by the terminal moraine of the Wisconsin Glacier which passed through this section of the county.

The complex of buildings is positioned at the approximate center of the acreage, with the farmhouse placed only a short distance off of Cooper Road. Located directly behind the main residence is a one and a half story tenant house, and a short distance to the south is the outhouse.(Photograph 2) North of the farm-house is a semi-circular drive, grouped around which are a garage, a barn, a corn crib and a carriage house.(Photograph 3) Behind these are located two frame chicken coops, and a small stone smokehouse. Directly to the north of the barn, a high stone ramp and stone foundations are all that remain of the original banked barn, which burned in 1936.(Photograph 4) The Farmhouse (circa 1855) (Photographs 5 & 6)

Join us on a tour of the Ayres/Knuth Farm grounds!