Moraine Farm with your dog: Olmsted paths and the Wenham Lake water rule

The Trustees' regulations for Moraine Farm are short. Dog walking is allowed on leash. Wenham Lake is a public drinking water supply, and swimming, wading and dog access to the water are restricted; the visitor tips spell it out, asking people not to swim or wade and not to let dogs wade or swim either. The 2024 trail map repeats the message beside the shoreline: Wenham Lake is a public water supply, please do not enter the water.

The rest of the list matters to a dog walker too. The property is carry in, carry out, so bags and litter leave with you. Hunting is prohibited, which makes Moraine Farm a calm choice in the fall. Smoking, alcohol and fire are banned, and the page notes that wildfires are not uncommon. The map marks the farm fields as no access and an area beside them as closed, and the main house has limited access when events are running.

Moraine Farm is, in The Trustees' words, the finest existing example of Olmsted's approach to planning a country estate. He designed it in 1880 on 275 acres owned by the merchant John C. Phillips, it was completed in 1882, and The Trustees say ideas tested here reappeared at Biltmore and at Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Olmsted's three carriage loops are the walking trails today, passing stone walls, rolling meadows and views of the lake.

The ownership is unusual. The Trustees co-own the property with the Cape Ann Waldorf School, whose entrance you pass on the way in, and 16 acres are farmed by New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, part of Tufts University's Friedman School. Essex County Greenbelt monitors the conservation restriction. For a dog owner, the practical upshot is on the map: the farm fields are marked no access and the school grounds private, so your dog's walk is the trail network, not the open land beside it.

The Trustees' directions take you along Cabot Street, Route 97, past the entrances to the Cape Ann Waldorf School and New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, to the parking lot entrance on the right at number 779. A trail map hangs on a kiosk in the lot; photograph it or download the map before you go. The 2024 map also shows a pedestrian entrance on Conant Street at the south end, with no parking marked there.

Dry paws are not the same as a clean dog. After a dusty August loop or a muddy April one, our bath and brush runs from $55 for a dog up to 25 pounds to $95 for an extra-large long coat, with nail clipping at $16, and grooming needs no evaluation. From Cabot Street, Route 128 north runs to its end in Gloucester near 210 Eastern Ave. The Pup Van does not cover Beverly, so ask us about pick-up for your street.