Smithfield (Blacksburg, Virginia)

Smithfield is a plantation outside Blacksburg, Virginia built from 1772 to 1774 as a home by Col. William Preston. It was the birthplace of two Virginia Governors: James Patton Preston and John B. Floyd. The house remained a family home until 1959 when the home was donated to the APVA.

History

The plantation site was part of 120,000 acres originally granted to James Patton by the British Crown. Patton died in an Indian massacre in 1755.^[2] The property passed to Patton's nephew, Colonel William Preston who built the house from 1772 to 1774. Preston was an important colonial political figure, and may have been the author of the Fincastle Resolutions.^[3] He remained on the property, despite frequent threats from nearby Native Americans and the disruptions of the American Revolutionary War until his death in 1783.^[3]

The property then passed to his wife, who lived there until her death forty years later.^[4] James Patton Preston, Virginia Governor, inherited the plantation from his mother. It was also the birthplace and home of his son, William Ballard Preston.

The house itself is L-shaped, with high ceilings and large rooms. The detailing and proportions of the house are unusual for frontier homes. More unusually, the master bedroom is placed between the parlor and the dining room on the first floor, implying that Preston wanted to impress his guests with his ornate bedroom furniture.^[2]

Preservation

Preservation Virginia acquired the property in the 1959 as a gift from Janie Preston Boulware Lamb, Colonel Preston's descendent.^[2] The property was restored and opened to the public by 1964. The house displays eighteenth and nineteenth Decorative arts displays, as well as a Native American museum and garden tended to by the Garden Club of Virginia.^[4]

References