Historic Smithfield
1000 Smithfield Plantation Road
Blacksburg, Virginia 24060
Voice: 540-231-3947
Website: http://civic.bev.net/smithfield
E-mail: smithfield.plantation@vt.edu

On the eve of the American Revolution, the Virginia backcountry was a place of colliding cultures, clashing ideals, and physical danger. Wolves howled at night; panthers roamed the forest. Europeans and native Shawnee and Cherokee vied for the same fertile farmlands, often erupting into murderous violence.

It was here, at the eastern continental divide - the literal edge of European/American civilization - that leader of westward expansion and Revolutionary War patriot William Preston established Smithfield Plantation. In a land of log cabins and physical hardship, Smithfield provided a haven of aristocratic elegance and became the social and political center of the county.

William Preston was about 45 years old when he moved his family to Smithfield in March of 1774. He and his wife had seven children at that time, five more children were born at Smithfield. Colonel Preston began at once to make Smithfield a productive and profitable plantation.

In 1959, Janie Preston Boulware Lamb, great great granddaughter of Colonel William Preston, presented Smithfield to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities with the stipulation that the newly formed Montgomery County Branch of the APVA would restore, maintain, and open the house to the public.