Turn off well-traveled Route 202 10 minutes from New Hope, and you’ll see sheep grazing in the pastures on either side of a sycamore-flanked lane. At the end is Barley Sheaf Farm, the 1740 mansard-roofed fieldstone house that in the ‘30s was the hideaway of playwright George S. Kaufman. Today this charming 30-acre farm, though just around the
bend from the bustling antiques shops of Peddler’s Village, manages to retain the quiet gentility that prevailed when Lii-han Heliman, Alexander Woollcott, and Moss Hart visited here.
The swimming pool, a duck pond, and the bank barn add texture and a relaxed appeal to the house and grounds, which have been designated a National His-toric Site. On avisit to the States in 1994, Peter and Veronika Suess, two business-people from Switzerland, saw Barley Sheaf and fell in love with it. They quit their jobs, bought the property via in-ternational fax, and arrived the first night to a full house of guests.
The house and adjacent cottage are fur-nished in a mixture of English and American antiques, with rich Oriental rugs scattered over the wide-plank floors. Guests gather in the common room by the fire for chess, checkers, and conversation.
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