Somerset Place

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For the Georgian crescent in Bath, England, see Somerset Place (Bath).

Somerset Place State Historic Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Somerset Place

Nearest city	Creswell, North Carolina
Coordinates	35°47′15″N 76°24′20″W / 35.78750°N 76.40556°W / 35.78750; -76.40556
Area	7 acres (2.8 ha)
Built	1830
Architectural style	Other, "double-pile" plan
Governing body	State
NRHP Reference #	70000481^[1]
Added to NRHP	February 26, 1970

Somerset Place is a former plantation near Creswell in Washington County, North Carolina, along the northern shore of Lake Phelps, and now a State Historic Site. Somerset Place operated as a plantation from 1785 until 1865. Before the end of the American Civil War, Somerset Place had become one of the Upper South's largest plantations.^[2]

In 1969, Somerset Place was designated as a State Historic Site. In 1986, descendants of African American slaves from Somerset Place planned a gathering known as Somerset Homecoming.^[3] The event inspired a book titled "Somerset Homecoming" written by the property's current manager Dorothy Spruill Redford.^[4]

Visitors can tour the 1830s period plantation house, the dairy, kitchen/laundry, kitchen rations building, smokehouse and salting house. The site features several reconstructed buildings for the plantation's slaves, including two homes and the plantation hospital; the grounds include stocks that were used to punish slaves.

The visitor center's exhibits display the history of the site and antebellum North Carolina. There is also a gift shop.

Nature trails lead to Pettigrew State Park, which adjoins the site.

References

↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09.
↑ "Somerset Place - colossal slave-built plantation - North Carolina's African-American Culture: Advertising Travel Supplement" in FindArticles, April-May, 1995. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
↑ " Restored Plantation Is Peek Into The Past" in The Virginian-Pilot, June 1, 1997. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
↑ "Dorothy Spruill Redford" in UNC-TV, 2001. Retrieved May 2, 2008.

External links

Somerset Place - official site
An Historic Albemarle Tour Site

Historic sites operated by the North Carolina Division of State Historic Sites and Properties

Historic Sites

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places

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Coordinates: 36°05′58″N 79°52′12″W / 36.099357°N 79.8700627°W / 36.099357; -79.8700627

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