The Gibbet Hill Grill & The Barn at Gibbet Hill

1655
The hill is named for the English gibbet, 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 still stands.

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'd 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. 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; 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, for over $10M to prevent the imminent development; vows to prevent any future residential development; receives standing ovation at Town Meeting for his commitment to preserving the rural nature of the town.

2004
Gibbet Hill Grill, a restaurant-function hall located in two 100-year-old New England style barns on the property, opens in the fall. Co-owners/operators are Josh, Jed, and Kate Webber.

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 horsebarn, 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.