11/06/2026
Received my wonderful copy of Blackberry Farm’s new book “Blackberry Fifty”- it is a stunning book and a huge congratulations to editors and ! Highly recommend getting a copy on
A big thank you to which we collaborated on so many wonderful projects.
Working up at Blackberry Farm for 18 years was such a blessing and privilege.
There's something very magical about Blackberry Farm, it has always touched my soul deeply. Doing both personal homes for the Beall family at Blackberry Farm was such an enriching experience and of course all the design work on the farm.
There are so many fond memories going back 35 years of knowing the Beall family. I share a deep love for both the Beall family and Blackberry.
We worked on so many amazing, wonderful projects, numerous additions and renovations to the main house, the boat house, chestnut cottage, oak cottage, holly glade cottages, singing brook cottages, hill cottages, the original reception center and the yallarhammer pavilion. We had the privilege of working on Kreis and Sandy’s home at the Maple Cottage (where cooking schools were once held), Sam and Mary Celeste’s home at Blackberry and a private home for Brad and Dina Martin.
Rick and I would have extensive day-long meetings with Sandy, Kreis, Sam and Mary Celeste Beall, along with Chuck Alexander of Hickory Construction, that often extended into the dinner hours-of course the culinary experience was always incredible. Dreaming and drawing up such wonderful concepts for Blackberry. As always, the Beall family was always such gracious entertainers.
I first met Sam Beall, at age 15, when we were working on renovations for Rose Bay Cottage in Point Clear Alabama in 1991. Sam was such a dreamer and visionary.
While working on multiple additions and updates to the main house, we were looking to have some additional premier rooms. With that idea, we had all proposed the Holly Glade addition to the main house.
We ran into some grading and tree issues with the addition, but that pushed us to create the magical “village” of the Holly Glade Cottages as they are today, which is one of my favorite places on the farm. It has such a quaint and charming feeling.
