{"nrhp_refnum":"75002172","name":"Ashley, Col. John, House (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["See Also:Ashley, Col. John, House"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"W of Ashley Halls on Cooper Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sheffield","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.05810344600005,"lon":-73.35351790882804,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-08-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A boundary increase adding about 30 acres of open farmland known as Conklin Field to the Colonel John Ashley House site in Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The field lies south of Cooper Hill Road, along Stony Brook.","why_significant":"The field was originally part of Colonel John Ashley's extensive eighteenth-century farm and adjoins Bartholomew's Cobble, which was also once part of that farm. Its open rural setting provides the farmscape essential to preserving a property that shows the Berkshire way of life. The field was for sale and faced a threat of subdivision into house lots.","narrative":"Conklin Field is a 30-acre tract of open farmland south of the Colonel John Ashley House in Sheffield, Massachusetts. It runs along Stony Brook, reaches the intersection of Cooper Hill and Rannapo Roads, and borders Bartholomew's Cobble Reservation to the south. The field has no buildings and was being used to grow corn for silage. It was added to the historic site because it once belonged to Colonel John Ashley's large eighteenth-century farm, as did the neighboring 170-acre Bartholomew's Cobble. The surrounding farmscape also helps convey the way of life the house represents. At the time, a private owner was selling the field, and Sheffield's one-acre zoning with no frontage requirements meant house lots could have changed the pastoral setting. The Trustees of Reservations, which owns the house, sought to buy the land and reunite the holdings Ashley once had. The state review board and the Massachusetts Historical Commission supported the expansion.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Conklin Field contains no structures and is presently used to raise corn for silage. It was for sale by a private owner, and the Trustees of Reservations planned to acquire it.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.842061-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/58/7942/63794258/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75002172.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794258","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/ashley-col-john-house-boundary-increase-75002172/"}