Gilsland Farm

Gilsland Farm is a historic property in Falmouth, Maine, United States. In the early 19th century, Silas Noyes built a home on the land, formerly the home of the Wabanakis, a few yards from the eastern banks of the Presumpscot River. The home still stands today, now owned by Maine Audubon. It is known as the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center.

History

Silas Noyes constructed a home at the start of today's Gilsland Farm Road, near a section of Old U.S. Route 1, in the early 1800s. Around a century later, in 1911, attorney and conservationist David Edward Moulton and his brother, Willis, bought the land. Moulton lost his first wife, Etta Knight, the same year, and remarried in 1918 to Helen Leavitt.
Moulton named the land Gilsland, after his relative, Sir Thomas de Moulton, who was named "Thom of the Gils" by his friend Richard I. It was during this ownership that the property was the home of over 400 species of peonies. Moulton died in 1951, and around two decades later his daughter, Ruth, began donating parts of the farm to Maine Audubon, which now owns. Maine Audubon purchased the farmhouse in 1981.