Welcome to
The Barn at Gibbet Hill
We are proud to offer one of New England's most
unique venues for weddings, corporate events, and other private
functions: a stylishly renovated and restored turn-of-the-century
barn that overlooks rolling hills of conservation land that
are home to our very own farm.
We work towards making your event as unique as
you are, with possibilities ranging from classic 5-course plated
dinners to more casual farm-sourced dinners served outside on
the lawn. There is never more than one event at a time, so our
staff will be fully dedicated to making sure your event is executed
in the exact manner you wish.
Please
contact our sales team to get more information about how
we can create the perfect event for you.
About Us
THE OWNERS:
Josh Webber
led
effort to put Gibbet Hill into conservation back in 2000. Today,
he and his brother Jed run the still unnamed restaurant group
that includes Gibbet Hill Grill, the Barn at Gibbet Hill, The
Scarlet Oak Tavern, and Fireside
Catering. Before getting involved in the family business,
Josh worked for five years in the mergers and acquisitions group
at Morgan Stanley. He received his undergraduate degree in math
and economics at Kenyon College, and his MBA from the Darden
School at UVA. Jed
Webber, the well-adjusted middle child, runs the restaurant
group that includes Gibbet Hill along with his brother Josh.
Jed has been the leading force behind the expansion of Gibbet
Hill into produce farming, and unexpectedly finds himself in
the tomato fields way more than he really needs to be. He has
had a variety of management experience in his career. After
five years of consulting in New York City, Jed got an MBA from
the Darden School in 2000, which included an internship with
the PlumpJack restaurant group in San Francisco. Jed attended
Middlebury College, graduating in 1993 with a double major in
Economics and Molecular Biology.
Kate Webber
Kate Webber, the artsy youngest child, was the first person
to realize that perks, not payment, is the way to go in the
restaurant industry and thus took on the role of Wine Director.
Kate is now a Certified Sommelier through the Court of Masters
Sommeliers, the International Sommelier Guild, and is a Diploma
candidate with the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. Outside
of the restaurant, Kate is a Wine and Beverage instructor at
Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts and a member of the
Boston Tasting Group. In her previous life, Kate worked in professional
theatre and independent film before getting her MFA in Creative
Writing at the University of Virginia. Kate is also an award-winning
pianist and can say the fifty states in 12.5 seconds.
THE MANAGEMENT TEAM:
Tom Totman, Managing Partner
Tom has been managing restaurants since 1989 in both Boston
and San Francisco at such places as Harvard Square's Border
Café, Bertucci's, Legal Seafoods, and McCormick and Schmick's
in Boston. As Managing Partner at Gibbet Hill, Tom is in charge
of both the Grill and the Barn and has discovered all of the
secret passageways between the two buildings. We wish for his
sake that there was a secret passageway between Groton and Hingham;
Tom also works as the Managing Partner at Gibbet Hill's cousin
restaurant, The Scarlet Oak Tavern. Tom's dedication to customer
service is legendary, which is why we were so lucky to drag
him away from the big city. Tom now lives in Holliston with
his wife and two children, Madeline and Julian. In his spare
time, Tom likes to the watch the golf channel, including a golf
"reality" show.
K.C. O'Hara, Culinary Director
It's really hard to write K.C.'s bio considering he's been
involved in the Boston restaurant scene for the past 18 years.
He's worked in the kitchen of such esteemed restaurants as Sonsie,
The East Coast Grill, Seasons, and The Harvard Faculty Club,
all in addition to working as a chef consultant, a recipe developer
for cookbooks, and a guest chef at the Masters Golf Tournament
in Augusta, Georgia. K.C. splits his time between Gibbet Hill
and Hingham's Scarlet
Oak Tavern, which is a lot of driving considering he lives
North of Boston (see above re: plans for secret passageway construction
between the two locations). Add to that the fact that he coaches
lacrosse in Medford, has a wonderful wife and three children
and washes his hat every night, he has the tendency to make
the rest of us look kinda lazy. The big jerk. , Director of Catering Sales and Marketing
Carolyn was raised in Newport, Rhode Island. She attended
Johnson & Wales University where she received a degree in culinary
arts and pastry as well as hospitality and food service management.
After working many years as a chef and caterer in Newport she
moved to Boston where she pursued her hospitality career in
Event Sales for Marriott and The Ritz Carlton Boston. She has
also continued her culinary love by catering in the Nashoba
Valley area. Carolyn has booked and serviced over one thousand
weddings in her career. She lives in Littleton with her family.
Karen Osterberg, Executive Banquet Chef
Karen Osterberg comes to Gibbet Hill from a position as an
Executive Banquet Chef at the Kirkbrae Country Club in Rhode
Island. After receiving a degree in Culinary Arts from Newbury
College, Karen served as a chef, banquet chef, catering chef,
and pastry chef in such places as the South Rim of the Grand
Canyon, Atlanta, Denver, Wilmington, and Wrightsville Beach,
North Carolina. She has created meals for groups of 20 people
and groups of 1,200, including catering a wedding reception
for 175 people out of a 14-foot box truck. This March Karen
will work her second year in a row as an invited chef at the
Masters Golf Tournament in Georgia. Karen enjoys motorcycles,
the Boston Red Sox, white chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups,
exercising, and chicken pot pie.
Sara Zambuto, Catering Sales Manager
We
were lucky (and thrilled!) to grab Sara in September of 2005
to help out with the business in The Barn. Sara has worked for
catering companies and restaurants in addition to holding positions
as the Banquet Manager and Director of Catering at the Holiday
Inn Logan Airport and, most recently, as the Catering Sales
Manager at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge. Along the way she picked
up a degree in dietetics, which she claims is a fancy way of
saying "nutrition." In her spare time she likes spending time
with her husband Joe and her son Jason, reading, canoeing, planning
her garden, renovating her house, and wrapping presents. If
Sara won the lottery she would move to Maui and learn how to
surf and make jewelry out of coconut shells.
Julie Vaughan, Operations Manager
Julie became our banquet manager back in April of 2007, and
she couldn't have come soon enough. Responsible for executing
all of our events in the Barn, her organizational skills, multi-tasking
abilities, and calm in the face of the storm (and collapsing
cake tables) has been invaluable. Her success is no surprise:
she studied hotel restaurant management at UMass, has worked
as a prep cook, a line cook, a banquet cook, and a front of
house manager. A resident of the East Coast since high school
(via Wisconsin and Oregon), Julie is the mother of two children,
Jack and Lily, who battle it out everyday in their pursuit of
careers in the WWF. Julie spends most of her time either tending
to her obscene cookbook collection and playing Spiderman with
her kids, which goes hand-in-hand with Julie's skills: as Spiderman
always says, "With awesome power comes awesome responsibility."
History
Gibbet Hill - An Historic Timeline
1645
The hill is named for the English gibbet (pronounced JIB-bet),
a gallows generally situated on a hill for public executions.
Although there are some local legends and rumors, there are
no substantiated claims of executions on the hill; Gibbet Hill
was more likely named after a hill in England. A farmhouse built
by John Lawrence in 1690 still stands (the white house next
to the driveway).
1906
General William Bancroft, a Groton native who became head of
the Boston Elevated Railroad and Mayor of Cambridge, began building
a retirement home called Shawfieldmont at the crest of Gibbet
Hill. Beginning with a modest bungalow, he planned to add a
castle-like mansion and a stable, but ran out of money before
the project was complete.
1918
Property is sold to Harold Ayres, a prominent physician who
turned the bungalow into a private sanitarium, which accepted
"all but insane or contagious" patients for $20 per week.
1920s
Groton Private Hospital houses tuberculosis sufferers on its
long, open porches with views 30 miles to Mount Wachusett.
1930s
The Groton Hunt Club uses the bungalow for fox-hunting parties,
dinners, dances and nature outings. In 1932 "careless fireworks"
are blamed for a fire that destroyed most of the bungalow, leaving
only the remains of a stone observation tower intact.
1947
After World War II, Marion Campbell, a Vassar graduate who had
written for the Washington Post and whose father owned Atlantic
Monthly, purchases the rundown farm. Campbell hires local farm
manager Bill Conley to help her breed Black Angus cattle.
1980s
Herd producing "superior meat" has grown to 600 head and bloodlines
have been tracked as far as Australia and Zimbabwe.
Late 1990's
Marion Campbell Trust puts property up for sale. In the summer
of 2000, they reach final stages of an agreement with the construction
company Modern Continental, which approves plans to develop
78 houses on the property.
2000
Geotel Communications founder Steven Webber, a Groton native,
buys the 338-acre farm, plus an adjacent 188-acre orchard, to
prevent the imminent development; vows to prevent any future
residential development. Steve receives a standing ovation at
Town Meeting for his commitment to preserving the rural nature
of the town.
2004
Josh, Jed and Kate Webber open a steakhouse called Gibbet Hill
Grill in a 100-year-old New England style barn on the property.
Shortly afterwards they open The Barn at Gibbet Hill, a function
facility in a similarly restored barn next door. The siblings
co-own and operate the two buildings today.
2009
The Gibbet Hill Grill furthers it's farm-to-fork philosophy
by hiring a Farm Manager and planting two acres of produce to
be used in the Grill and Barn. Over 40 varieties of heirloom
tomatoes, summer squash, beets, cucumbers, greens, beans, peppers,
herbs, edible flowers, and many other crops make it to the menu.
Weddings
The first wedding at The Barn at Gibbet Hill took place in
2002 when Jed and
Asia's fantastic outdoor wedding plans got rained out. Back
then the Barn was completely unrenovated - hay bales were moved
to the edge of the room and the tractor had to be parked outside
so a makeshift wedding aisle could be made. After witnessing
the undeniable magic of that day, the idea to transform the
Barn into a permanent wedding venue began to take hold. Two
years later, after a massive renovation of the Barn was completed,
The Barn at Gibbet Hill officially opened for business. And
two years after that, CBS-4 crowned the Barn at Gibbet Hill
the best wedding venue in the Boston Area!
The Barn can hold up to 220 people with a dance floor. There
is an outside, heated deck with a permanent roof over it that
is used for cocktail receptions.
Our weddings packages and menus can be custom designed to meet
your individual wishes. Standard packages are priced from $82
to $122 per person.
To view our wedding packages click
here.
We offer discounts to our food and beverage minimums in the
offseason. Please ask our wedding specialisits for more details.
Holiday Parties
The Barn at Gibbet Hill has been executing truly memorable
Holiday Parties for years. Whether you are one of the companies
that has been having their holiday party with us for years,
or are new to the Barn, you can be assured that your event will
be executed professionally from the first phone inquiry to the
last guest walking out our doors.
Corporate Events
The Barn at Gibbet Hill is a well-trusted professional venue
with years of experience executing many different types of corporate
events with many different feels. From launch parties, to intimate
thank you dinners, to corporate-wide holiday parties, we understand
the need for the look and feel of the event to both match its
purpose as well as reflect your good judgement. Our combined
decades of experience ensure that your event will be executed
professionally and set the precise tone that you wish.
Click here for
sample conference menus
Please contact our sales
team for more information.
Top of the Hill
This outdoor venue is located at the summit of Gibbet Hill
Farm. The Top of the Hill is an exclusive venue available for
a very limited number of events throughout the year. The views
from the Top of the Hill look out onto the surrounding areas
to Mt. Wachusett, Mt. Watatic, and Mt. Monadnock. At the summit
of the Hill you will also find General Bancroft's Castle, the
remains of a lodge built by General William Ayers Bancroft in
1906. The Castle is a one-of-a-kind location to hold weddings,
receptions, or special occasions of any kind. An open area nearby
provides an opportunity for tented parties for up to 200 people.
This outdoor venue is offered June through September. Please
inquire with the Wedding Specialists about availability and
prices.
Contact Us
The Barn at Gibbet Hill
61 Lowell Road
Groton, MA 01450
(978) 448-3233 - Phone
(978) 448-3433 - Fax
Email: thebarn@gibbethill.com
Request Information
Directions
Click
Here for Printer Friendly Direction
From New Hampshire and the North:
Take Route 3 to Route 40 west, towards Westford (exit 33).
Follow Route 40 for 9 miles. Gibbet Hill is on your right.
From Boston and points Northeast:
Take Route 95 to Route 3-North (exit 32-A). Follow Route 3
for 15.5 miles to Route 40 west, towards Westford (exit 33).
Follow Route 40 for 9 miles. Gibbet Hill is on your right.
From the Mass Pike and points South and Southeast:
Follow the Mass Pike to 495-North (exit 11A in Westborough).
Follow 495-North to Rte. 119, exit 31. Take 119 West towards
Groton for 6.7 miles to Route 40 east, a sharp right turn at
the white First Unitarian Church. Follow Route 40 for about
.2 miles; Gibbet Hill is on your left.
FAQ
In response to the questions we've received from guests and
visitors, we decided to include a FAQ page to our site. If you
have other questions, please feel free to email us!
THE BARN
THE CASTLE
THE BUILDINGS
THE OTHER
THE BARN
1) How many people does the Barn hold?
The Barn can hold 220 people with a dance floor.
2) Can we bring in our own caterer?
No, all catering is done on site by Gibbet Hill.
3) Why do you only have four events a year at the top of the
hill?
The terms of the conservation restriction under which the land
is placed dictates that we can only have power and vehicles
on the top of the hill four times a year.
4) Can I have my event outside if I don't have it on the top
of the hill?
Yes, we have a space available as well as an outside deck with
a roof.
5) Can I specify my own menu?
Yes. Although we can offer several options in a variety of
styles, we would be happy to sit down with you and design a
menu that makes your event as individual as you are
6) How do I reserve the Barn for my own function?
To reserve the Barn or for any other information on functions
at Gibbet Hill, please contact our director of sales, Carolyn
Hilton.
THE CASTLE
General William Amos Bancroft, Mayor of Cambridge, inherited
the farm in 1873 from his father. In 1906 he built a lodge
and turret of stone and stucco near the top of the hill. Later,
he planned to build a castle at the top of the hill as his
main residence. He lived in the lodge and tower but planned
to turn it into a stable when his castle was built. Unfortunately,
the money for his project ran out and he had to abandon his
plans.
In 1918 Dr. Harold Ayers purchased Gibbet Hill and turned
Gen. Bancroft's stone residence into a private sanitarium,
"Groton Private Hospital," which accepted all but "insane
and contagious patients" for twenty dollars a week, and after
World War I housed tuberculosis patients. Dr. Ayers built
a fieldstone home and clubhouse farther up the hill which
was used by the Groton Hunt Club in the 1930s.
On July 4, 1932, a fireworks display burned down the castle
bungalow built by Gen. Bancroft, leaving just the turret and
the stone foundation behind. This turret and foundation are
still near the top of the hill today and can be seen from
the trails that cross through the farm.
A horse barn, situated between the castle and Dr. Ayers'
hospital, remained after the fire of 1932. The barn was in
severe disrepair, and was burned by farm manager Bill Conley
in 1951. The foundation was buried in 1960 when the hospital
was finally torn down.
THE BUILDINGS
1) What is the name of the paint color on the restaurant walls?
Benjamin Moore Quincy Tan
2) Where can I get some chairs like those near the fireplace?
The chairs were purchased from a subsidiary of Jos. Kilbridge
Antiques on Main Street in Groton. It's most likely possible
to get others like them at Kilbridge's.
3) Who did the decorating?
We hired interior designer Peter Niemitz of the Niemitz Design
Group. Niemitz has also designed such places as Legal Seafoods,
Clio, the Capital Grille, and Not Your Average Joe's.
4) Was the restaurant built from the ground up or was it renovated?
The Grill and The Barn were both renovated from barns originally
built around the turn of the century. Until October of 2003
the barns still held cattle.
5) Are the barn boards on the walls and ceilings from the
barn itself?
While most of the beams are original, the boards on the ceiling
and walls are from a turn-of-the-century barn in New Hampshire.
THE OTHER
1) How do you pronounce "Gibbet"?
JIB-bet. It is an old English term for a gallows or hangman's
noose
2) Are you looking for restaurant servers, cooks, or other
team members?
We are always accepting applications for qualified staff members.
Click here for more information
on employment.
The Trails
In 2004 an extensive trail network was opened to the public
on Gibbet Hill Farm. Guests and hikers can park their cars at
Gibbet Hill; please do not park in front of the trails or on
Route 40. There is access to the trails from the restaurant
itself. For
a map of the trails, please click here. We invite
everyone to come early or stay late and walk along the trails
throughout the farm. The trails take you to the top of Gibbet
Hill where you can see the stunning views of the town of Groton
and the surrounding areas including Mt. Wachusett, Mt. Watatic,
and Mt. Monadnock. The cows will be grazing nearby, but don't
worry - they're not man-eating cows.
NOTE: Please be aware that these trails wander through a working
farm. Although they are fenced off and separate from the cattle,
they still are on terrain that can be uneven and slightly muddy.
These are not paved trails.
Employment
The Barn at Gibbet Hill is constantly looking for bright, hard-working
people who enjoy the working environment of a busy, successful
restaurant. To apply for a job, click
here.
Directions
From New Hampshire and the North: Take Route 3 to Route 40
west, towards Westford (exit 33). Follow Route 40 for 9 miles.
Gibbet Hill is on your right
From Boston and points Northeast: Take Route 95 to Route 3-North
(exit 32-A). Follow Route 3 for 15.5 miles to Route 40 west,
towards Westford (exit 33). Follow Route 40 for 9 miles. Gibbet
Hill is on your right.
From the Mass Pike and points South and Southeast: Follow the
Mass Pike to 495-North (exit 11A in Westborough). Follow 495-North
to Rte. 119, exit 31. Take 119 West towards Groton for 6.7 miles
to Route 40 east, a sharp right turn at the white First Unitarian
Church. Follow Route 40 for about .2 miles; Gibbet Hill is on
your left.
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