Historic Deerfield Inc.
Flynt Center for Early New England Life

Deerfield, Massachusetts
1996-1997

The Flynt Center for Early New England Life takes its place among tobacco barns and sheds. DDA’s design for the Center’s grounds takes its cues from their austere agricultural context. A curbless gravel drive sweeps to the study center/museum entry and leads to a parking area tucked behind the two barns. Two sheds are relocated to make way for the drive and to create an informal cluster of accessory buildings. A swathe of native switch grass lines the entry walk and neighboring tobacco barn. Native trees and shrubs are layered sparingly into existing hedgerows to screen broadside views of the barn-like museum building and to frame views to adjoining fields. The new study center environs look as of they belong to the vernacular Deerfield valley landscape as it is glimpsed from Main Street between the stately rows of colonial houses.