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Purchased by the town in 2007, the former Wright-Locke-Hamilton Farm is the last working farm in Winchester. Its current and sole crop is organic raspberries.  Located off Ridge Street and Edward Drive, the farm abuts conservation parcels in Winchester and Lexington and contains about 20 acres.  The town is selling part of the farm to Abbott Real Estate Development for residential development.  The portion remaining in town ownership is under the care of the Wright-Locke Farm Conservancy, whose first board of directors was appointed in 2008. 

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983, the farm is a remarkably intact complex of 19th-century buildings, including a farmhouse and eight outbuildings (barn, ice house, squash house, pump house, and others) of great architectural and historical integrity.  The property was farmed by the Wright family, whose forebears helped settle the parent town of Woburn.  In 1800, Philemon Wright sold the property to Josiah Locke, who sold it to his son Asa who built the house at 78 Ridge St.  His descendants continued to own and work the farm, which once totaled 100 acres, for about 175 years. It was acquired by the Hamiltons in 1964. 

In 2006, the farm went up for sale and an offer was accepted from a developer who planned to subdivide the land for up to 300 units of housing.  To avoid that outcome, the town asked for voter support and then exercised its option to purchase the property, which it did in July 2007.  The town issued an RFP for a development that would recoup the purchase price but also leave portions of the property undeveloped for town-wide use and enjoyment.  Ultimately, after proposals were modified, the Board of Selectmen presented Abbott Real Estate Development to Fall 2007 Town Meeting as its preferred developer. Town Meeting authorized the sale.  It also amended the Attached Residential Cluster Development Overlay District to allow buildings with up to 12 units.  The Board of Selectmen signed the purchase and sales documents for both 78 Ridge St. and 82 Ridge St. in December 2007. The P&S documents were accompanied by a substantial development agreement.  All the agreements are subject to a life estate for Mrs. Hamilton.

The portion of the site to be developed includes two parcels totaling about 12.5 acres of land in the northeast and southwest corners of the farm. Four duplexes and two triplexes are planned for the area off Ridge Street.  In the southwest, four 12-unit “flats” are to be accessed off Edward Drive.  Altogether the development includes 62, age-restricted condominium units.

The Abbott development is the second project to be proposed under the town’s Attached Residential Cluster Development Overlay District.  The zoning bylaw requires approval of the area comprehensive plan by the Planning Board and a special permit/site plan review by the Zoning Board of Appeals. The Planning Board voted its approval in Nov. 2008.  The Conservation Commission found in August 2007 that, under the town’s wetlands bylaw, its jurisdiction is limited to an isolated land subject to flooding. It issued an order of conditions in Nov. 2008.