How a giant pumpkin wall became a big-time fall destination

At Wilson Farm in Lexington, visitors are greeted by a nearly 25-foot-tall wall of 200 colorful pumpkins on the side of its barn. 

The iconic pumpkin wall has been a fixture of Wilson Farm’s fall festivities since its inception in 1996, said Jeff Callahan, the outside manager.

Lauren Wilson, a fifth-generation family member of the farm, said the pumpkin wall has always been beloved by visitors, but in recent years it has grown in popularity due to social media. Customers from all over Massachusetts now come to the farm to get their photo in front of the wall. 

“It’s really been wonderful to get all of these new customers in here, these new fans who have just heard about it from social media,” she said. “Whether it’s TikTok or Instagram, they’ve seen someone else post it and would really like to come experience it for themselves. We absolutely love that.”

Callahan said with a rented scissor lift, it takes them about 4 hours to put all the boxes up on the wall, and another three to place the pumpkins. 

“We have all the pumpkins, every bin of pumpkins, down below, and then we just put them up randomly by different colors,” he said. 

There’s a large variety to the types of pumpkins on the wall, from moonshine to peanut pumpkins, Callahan said. They decide which pumpkin goes where largely based on the color, making the wall different every year. 

“It’s very unique year after year because it’s kind of by trial and error,” Wilson said. “So the guys who are on the scissor list will put a pumpkin in a box, and then someone down below says, ‘No, that doesn’t look good there,’ and then we move it to a different box.” 

As new varieties mature during the fall season, Wilson said they will swap out new pumpkins on the wall. 

“Jeff is really good about saying, ‘Oh, we don’t have this one in the pumpkin wall. This would look fantastic,’” she said. “So if you come later in the season, you may even see some newer varieties of pumpkins on the wall than when you came earlier in the season.”

Callahan, who’s worked at Wilson Farm for more than 30 years, said one of the farm’s owners came to him with the idea decades ago. 

“One of the owners who has passed away had a picture of a little teenie barn that had a few pumpkins on the side of the barn,” Callahan said. “ … I said, ‘Well, that’s pretty cool.’ He [said], ‘That’s great, do it to the side of the building.’ It was a rainy day, so we got a big ladder, and up and down the ladder [we] made a nice pumpkin wall.” 

Since that rainy day in 1996, Wilson said they’ve become more efficient when making the wall each year. 

“We’ve gotten better over time because now we actually rent a scissor lift,” she said. “It’s a lot safer than doing it with a ladder in the rain… everyone felt much safer than back in 1996.” 

Each year they aim to get the pumpkin wall up by Labor Day, and they take it down shortly after Halloween, Wilson said. While the pumpkin wall is a popular attraction, she said it’s not nearly all that the farm has to offer. 

After customers get their photo in front of the wall, they can visit the market with fresh produce, baked goods, homemade cheese, apple cider doughnuts, and hand-spun caramel apples. They also have an open-air nursery with mums, pumpkins, and squash along with attractions celebrating the harvest season, including a pumpkin village and potato blasters. 

“[The pumpkin wall] is what’s most popular on social media, but once [customers] get here they get to experience the whole farm itself,” Wilson said. “It’s a really fun place for families to explore.”