The home of Daniel P. and Mercy (Mary) Littlefield once stood on this foundation, and a visit there inspired Sarah Orne Jewett's 1889 sketch "The White Rose Road," whose "old farmer" is presumed to have been Daniel Littlefield. Jewett portrayed him as a clean-shaven, strong-featured man of the older New England type, with a large frame built for hard work on newly cleared land. The property's history reaches back to 1784, when William Joye and his wife Martha purchased and settled the land around what is now known as Orris Falls, and the surviving foundation was most likely first laid by Joye in the earliest days of the 19th century. In 1815 the farm was deeded to his son, William Joy, Jr., who sold it to Edward G. Goodwin in 1837 while reserving the family burying ground near the top of Brown Hill. John D. Lang and William Hill bought the land in 1839 and, on January 19, 1843, sold it to Daniel P. Littlefield for $850. Born in 1821 in nearby Sanford, Littlefield came from a family of English yeomen and farmers and chose an upland farm like his father's. He married Mercy Allen on February 2, 1849, and they had five children: Henrietta, Eunice, Isaro, Orris, and Phoebe. The family is believed to have supported itself through farming and harvesting crops. Mercy, crippled by rheumatism, died in 1889 after being predeceased by Henrietta, Eunice, and Isaro. That same year Daniel arranged for the property to pass to his son Orris upon his death for $1000, and when Daniel died in 1891 after a life of "almost undiverted toil," the land passed to Orris and eventually took his name. In 1999 Great Works Regional Land Trust acquired the property, which had been heavily logged and was slated for housing development, and over the next ten years assembled five additional parcels to create the 192-acre Orris Falls Conservation Area, whose 1.8-mile trail gives public access to Orris Falls, the Big Bump, Tatnic Ledges Overlook, and Balancing Rock.