NASHUA – During a September interview with The Telegraph, Sullivan Farm owner Kathy Williams said she was working with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests to protect Nashua’s last working farm from housing developers.

“I have a very strong sense of place, and I don’t want to see it being built up with houses and condominiums,” she said of the 52-acre farm at 70 Coburn Ave. “I like how it is and it’s my effort to keep it that way.”

“We are a working farm and I would just like to see the farm remain a farm and an open space,” Williams said.

“It’s the last farm and it’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” she added, as she recalled her father and grandfather running the property.

This week, officials with the forestry organization announced they closed on a conservation easement for the farm, which dates to 1911. A total of $1.4 million was raised for its purchase from many organizations and the city of Nashua.

The society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting historical and natural locations throughout the state, including the White Mountains, Crawford Notch, Mount Monadnock and many others locations.

“With my family having farmed this land for more than a century, I wanted to ensure its protection while I still could,” Williams regarding the deal. “It’s such a big part of our family history and of the fabric of this community. As agricultural land continues to disappear, I wanted to do my part to keep our farm from becoming just a memory.”

The farm has been in the Williams family for four generations since 1911 when Katherine’s great-grandfather, Joseph Sedlewicz, bough the location and used them for dairy cows and vegetable farming.

An orchard was later planted.

Today, the farm, with its familiar red barn, offers the community a farmstand, pick-your-own orchards, annual agricultural events and activities, as well as walking trails. The conservation easement will keep the land as a working farm.

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