Quarry Hill Creative Center - Expansion

Expansion

When the countercultural movement of the 1960s and 1970s began, hundreds of people, from all over the world, began to pour through Quarry Hill. Many people wanted to build houses at Quarry Hill, and they did. The place was known for its international population and for its ideals about child care. Many children grew up at Quarry Hill and attended its school, The North Hollow School. Many graduates of the school have gone on to college and graduate school. In 1976, Irving and Barbara divorced, and a family-owned rental corporation, Lyman Hall, Inc., took over the land. It is presently (2012) managed by Brion McFarlin and Isabella Fiske McFarlin. Residents with houses have lengthy easements. Many changes have occurred over the years at Quarry Hill. It has had its own private K-12 school based on the principles of the Fiske family and of Summerhill School in England, and ran Free The Kids! Program, which offers educational material on the deleterious effect on children of spanking and other violence. The one central principle at Quarry Hill is that no violence towards children is permitted. Quarry Hill's land is under a covenant that outlaws spanking, slapping, and the denigration or neglect of children. Quarry Hill also permits no hunting, fishing, or animal slaughter. But there are few other rules. One rule remains, however: no roosters allowed. This is considered by some to be a peculiar whim of those who enjoy sleeping. In 2012, a few roosters do seem to be walking freely about the place—having read, perhaps, the iconic cartoon by Gilbert Shelton, "When I set my Chickens Free".

Irving—who went on with his activities as long as he lived—became well known in the counterculture both in the United States and elsewhere. He died of a stroke in Ocala, Florida, on April 25, 1990.

In 1989,Barbara remarried Dr. Donald Calhoun (June 14, 1917 - May 5, 2009), a writer, sociology professor and a Quaker like herself. Barbara Fiske Calhoun lives and teaches art at Quarry Hill (as of 2011). William Fiske died in his sleep on July 18, 2008, in Burlington, Vermont. Isabella Fiske McFarlin is at work on a memoir and life and times of Quarry Hill. The Fiske family does not consider Quarry Hill a "commune", as property is not communally owned; rentals or fees are charged for residence at Quarry Hill, and the land continues to belong to the Fiskes. Each year, on a date set by some mysterious internal clock, the younger people hold an "All Night Costume Dance Party" at Quarry Hill. They dance until dawn, whereupon they consume as many blueberry pancakes as they can, from a secret recipe devised by Brion McFarlin.