Organic farm homestead added to National Register of Historic Places

Organic farmers Helen and Scott Nearing lived at the stone cottage they built in Brooksville. Photo courtesy of the Good Life Center.

Feb. 23, 2026

By staff

BROOKSVILLE–Forest Farm, the homestead of prominent leaders of the back-to-the-land and organic farming movements in Maine, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, according to a press release. 

Once the home of the late Scott and Helen Nearing and now called the Good Life Center, the 4.7-acre property at 372 Harborside Road in Brooksville features a chalet-style stone house, a stone garage, a greenhouse, a stonewall garden enclosure, an outhouse and three wooden yurts. The Good Life Center is open to the public each season from Juneteenth to Indigenous People’s Day.

“This listing acknowledges the influence the Nearings have on American culture and Maine culture, particularly after the 1970 reissue of their book ‘Living the Good Life: How to Life Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World’ became a national bestseller,” said Warren Berkowitz, board member of the Good Life Center who knew the Nearings. “Thousands of people from across the country visited them at Forest Farm each year, shared a meal from the garden and many contributed to the building of the stone structures.”

The Nearings designed and hand-built the house, garage, outhouse, greenhouse and stonewall, using local stones, according to the press release. William Coperthwaite designed and built the yurts, known as the Gathering Yurt, the Meditation Yurt and the Small Yurt. The house, garage and outhouse were constructed between 1973 and 1978. The garden wall and greenhouse were built in 1978 to 1979, and the yurts were constructed in the 1980s, the release said.

In 1983, Helen Nearing published the book “Our Home Made of Stone: Building in our Seventies and Nineties” chronicling the couple’s work to create the Maine homestead.

The nonprofit Good Life Center continues the work of the Nearings “by preserving their homestead and library, hosting a series of speakers and workshops each season and advocating for sustainable living skills, social and economic justice, organic gardening and the non-exploitation of animals and the environment,” the release said.

There are approximately 100,000 listings across the country in the National Register of Historic Places, including dozens in Hancock County. To see a list of other local designations, visit the registry’s database.