McNeice Family Farmstead
A Landscape and Labor of Love Lives On
Donald and Virginia McNeice met while studying at The Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn. After graduation, they settled on Long Island. Don was an architect and Jini was beginning her painting career. But it wasn’t long before their shared vision of living on a farm brought them and their four children to Washington County in the mid-1960s. They settled in quickly.
While Don was responsible for many of the prominent structures in Glens Falls, Jini became a prolific and celebrated artist who participated in the very first Landscapes for Landscape and every one that followed until her passing. However, the couple's favorite project was the McNeice Family Farmstead.
They poured their hearts and souls into creating a beautiful and productive farm featuring flower and vegetable gardens, gathering spaces and studios to pursue their artistic endeavors. Don worked the land in his free time while Jini captured its beauty in her paintings.
In honor of Don and Jini’s love of the land and support of ASA’s conservation work, their children—Brian, Kathy, Annie and Maggie—have generously decided to protect their parents’ land by donating a conservation easement on the 82 acres located in the Town of Cambridge. This donation will not only honor their parents’ legacy but will ensure that the mixture of agricultural and forested lands will be protected forever.
“My sisters and I are incredibly happy to protect this land for the future. We loved growing up on the land and exploring every inch of it. We saw the transition from barren land when we first came, to a rich mixture of productive fields and reforested steep areas, seeing a single ermine or one groundhog, to the diversity of wildlife found there today.” — Brian McNeice
ASA is extremely grateful for the McNeice siblings’ donation and their commitment to local farmland and forest conservation.
