History of the Allen Farm: Located at 117 New Boston Rd Bedford NH, the Allen Estate was built by Rollin Heber Allen and his wife Sarah Bartlett Spencer Allen between 1896-1900. Allen [died 1925] was a real estate financier and dealer who owned the Arlington Hotel and others along with the Castle Square Theatre and the Empire (now Orpheum) Theatre in Boston. His son Herbert moved to the farm with the Stock Market crash, taking his son and daughter Barbara Allen Upton, to farm the Bedford estate. Beloved by successive generations, the Allen Estate was conceived as the centerpiece of some 300-acres of forests and pastures, around 80.5 acres of which remain with the estate. An impressive country holding overbuilt by the best craftsmen, it is a rare reminder of the manner in which successful American industrialists of the 19th century wished to be known and seen. The house is a slate mansard-roofed three-story, ten-bedroom building with high ceilings, five lovely porches and verandas, a two-story ell, a three-story barn said to be the best in New Hampshire, a large ice-house turned vegetable and fruit packaging building, a 4-bay, 2-story carriage house, and a pump house. All buildings date from the turn of the 20th century.