A Greenwich, Connecticut, resident recently uncovered a Revolutionary War cannon while cleaning out a neighbor’s barn, a discovery that links the region’s colonial history to modern restoration efforts.
A childhood curiosity became a lifetime project for Ali. She grew up in Riverside, Connecticut, spending her youth exploring the area around her home. Ali remembers peering over the fence into her neighbors’ yard, curious about the contents of their large red barns. The neighbors owned a two-acre chestnut farm and a classic Colonial farmhouse built by Charles Lockwood in 1804.
Ali eventually received an invitation to see the property for herself. The neighbors showed her a smaller summer kitchen barn and a larger structure filled with curiosities. She found an old-time car and boxes of centuries-old artifacts in the main barn. Up in the loft, she discovered a cannon dating back to the Revolutionary War.
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Decades later, the property was set to be demolished by developers. Ali purchased the land to preserve it and worked tirelessly to restore the site for her growing family. She transformed the barns into functional spaces, converting one into a playhouse for her four children and using the other as a shop for vintage and antique wares. Ali inherited her love of antiques from her parents, who collected early American folk art and painted furniture.
Today, Ali runs a business sourcing items from auctions, estate sales, and markets across the East Coast and throughout Europe. Her four children are now adults in their 20s, and she has cleared out the sports gear from the playhouse to make room for more acquisitions.
The larger barn now serves as a showroom for tables, benches, chairs, architectural elements, and large-scale lighting. Against the chestnut-clad walls, Ali displays crusty case pieces, including a wonky cupboard stocked with ironstone platters and hand-painted ceramic pitchers. Another room holds a rustic commode packed with cotton quilts, embroidered napkins, and homespun ticking cloths.
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The smaller barn houses antique artwork, urns, footstools, and fauteuils alongside barware, serveware, and assorted bric-a-brac. Among the collection are Nantucket baskets woven by members of the island’s “first family” of basketweaving, the Kane clan. Ali enjoys the stories behind the objects, noting that even a simple spoon can spark a conversation at the dinner table.
When hosting, Ali favors casual alfresco get-togethers. She believes nothing is too fragile or fancy to enjoy outdoors, so she often hauls antique Belgian tables and Spanish rattan chairs onto the lawn. She enlists Dana Worlock of Hedgerow Flower Farm + Studio to cultivate fresh arrangements of verbena, dahlias, chamomile, honeysuckle, and grapevine. The table settings feature vintage linens, bamboo flatware, heirloom wedding china, and Murano glass goblets.
