In 1817 the town voted to buy the farm owned by John Lummus and allocated $10,500 to create a town farm. The land had once been the farm of Dr. Thomas Berry, an idiosyncratic aristocrat of Ipswich. Despite its proximity to the village, it was not until 1753 that the town granted permission to build a road along a line separating the salt marsh from farmland.

The Ipswich Town Farm housing and barns were located on a slight knoll in the flat and marshy section of Ipswich just east of the commuter rail tracks north of town, near where the Rowley River and Eagle Hill River drain into Plum Island Sound. The farm was at the same location as the Ispwich transfer station, Ipswich wind turbine, and former Agresource composting facility at the end of Town Farm Road.