[5][6][7][3] Roerick summered for many years at his home called The Lost Farm in Tyringham, Massachusetts, an old farmhouse on a 90-acre plot that he restored from dilapidation, but which remained without electricity or plumbing.

He played summer stock at the Stockbridge Playhouse, and was visited by theatre friends – Shirley Booth and Lynn Bari helped rehabilitate The Lost Farm; visitors included Peggy Wood, Mady Christians, Eleanor Steber, and Samuel Barber, and Roerick hosted parties for the Stockbridge Playhouse troupe.

[3] In 1943, Roerick met author E. M. Forster while touring in Britain with This Is The Army,[8] an Irving Berlin show raising money for emergency relief.

Forster was quite happy there and dedicated his last book, Two Cheers for Democracy to "William Roerick and 'The Lost Farm' in Tyringham, Massachusetts".

[5][3][9][10][11] Roerick, who was gay,[12] lived both in New York City and at The Lost Farm with his partner and longtime collaborator, fellow actor and writer Thomas Coley.