Gerrit Smith Estate

Last updated

Gerrit Smith Estate
Gerrit Smith Estate Gate.jpg
USA New York location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location5304 Oxbow Rd.,
Peterboro, New York
Coordinates 42°58′3.53″N75°41′13.52″W / 42.9676472°N 75.6870889°W / 42.9676472; -75.6870889
Area7.78 acres (3.15 ha)
Architectural styleMid 19th Century Revival, Federal
NRHP reference No. 97001386
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 24, 1997 [1]
Designated NHLJanuary 3, 2001 [2]

The Gerrit Smith Estate is a historic residential estate at Oxbow Road and Peterboro Road in Peterboro, New York. It was home to Gerrit Smith (1797-1874), a 19th-century social reformer, abolitionist, and presidential candidate, and his wife, Ann Carroll Fitzhugh. Smith established an early temperance hotel on his estate, and it was a widely known stop for escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad. The surviving elements of the estate were declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001. [2] [3] The estate is now managed by a nonprofit organization, and is open for tours from June to August.

Contents

Description and history

The Gerrit Smith Estate is located on the west side of the hamlet of Peterboro, on about 8 acres (3.2 ha) of land (a remnant of what was once a 30-acre (12 ha) estate) bounded by Peterboro Road, Oxbow Road, and Oneida Brook. The estate was, in its heyday, a virtual village unto itself, with as many as 30 buildings, including the mansion house, secondary residences, and a hotel. The property is today much reduced: its Federal period mansion was destroyed by fire in the 1930s, the hotel had a short-lived existence (1827-1859) before it was torn down on Gerrit Smith's orders, and numerous other outbuildings have also been demolished or lost to decay. [3]

The building was described as follows in 1875:

On my arrival at Peterboro I first saw Mr. Smith at his office—a plain and substantial full sized edifice for the purpose situated a few rods from his dwelling. Very soon he showed me the way to his stately mansion, and seated me in his library room, where Mrs. Smith was engaged in drawing. This is a very large room entered (from) the large hall and fronts Main Street—had an extensive library, but he remarked that he had found time to read but a few of the volumes it contained. He passed me around through the mansion containing many large and smaller rooms, some 12 ft. high in the lower story—all in good order and richly but plainly furnished. The wide piazzo on the southerly side of the house was converted into a large conservatory with a glass front and filled with choice flowers in great variety and heated in winter from a furnace in the basement of the mansion. After such examination Mr. Smith remarked that his father had built the mansion when he was a child and before settlements even made near it to any extent—said he had improved and added somewhat to it and feelingly remarked that he venerated it with the poplars that surrounded it as the work of his father. We were now called to dinner and when seated around the table Mr. Smith with much unction invoked God's blessing upon the poor slave and the dinner was served. After dinner he conducted me over the grounds attached to his mansion consisting of 25 A[cres] of land through which was flowing a never-failing stream of water of sufficient size to operate a mill just below the premises. A strong stone wall above high water mark extending along the sides of the stream protected the banks from the action of the water the summits of the banks being some 15 ft. above the walls. The ground was graded, forming an even gradual slope to the height of the walls. On the one side of the stream was a beautiful green lawn. On the other side were five terraces some 15 to 20 rods in length, rising each about 3 ft above the other to the summit. These terraces were planted with grapevines of several varieties all in a flourishing condition. At the end of the terraces was a large greenhouse or grapery made of glass at a cost of $4,000 in which the most choice foreign grapes were produced. Some ten rods in the rear of the mansion is a beautiful summer house, near which is a fine artificial fountain of living water. The whole grounds were in a state of high cultivation, abounding in fruit and ornamental trees and flowers, producing abundance of vegetables in great variety, melons, etc. The grounds were carefully laid out, with neat gravel walks passing in different directions with a design for convenience and ornament and they exhibited good taste. [4]

The principal surviving buildings of historical significance that remain are the Peterboro Land Office with an attached smokehouse, designated on the National Register of Historic Places on its own, a 19th-century barn, and an adjacent building that was probably the laundry. [3]

The estate was established by Peter Smith, one of Madison County's early white settlers, in the early 19th century. Smith acquired a large tract of land from the Oneida people, with whom he had previously engaged in the fur trade. From this estate, he managed vast holdings of real estate (over 700,000 acres (2,800 km2) all over the state), and lent his name to both the hamlet of Peterboro and the encompassing township of Smithfield. Smith's son Gerrit took over this business in 1819, and eventually applied the family wealth to a wide variety of progressive causes. Principal among these were the abolition of slavery and the temperance movement. Smith attempted unsuccessfully to make Peterboro a dry community, opening what is believed to be the first temperance hotel in the nation on the estate. The hotel was ultimately a failure, and Smith razed it in the late 1850s. The estate was also widely known as a safe haven for escaped slaves making the trek to Canada on the Underground Railroad, and was a meeting place for suffragist organizations. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oneida, New York</span> City in Madison County, New York, US

Oneida is a city in Madison County in the U.S. state of New York. It is located west of Oneida Castle and east of Wampsville. The population was 11,390 at the 2010 census. The city, like both Oneida County and the nearby silver and china maker, was named for the Oneida tribe, which had a large territory here around Oneida Lake during the colonial period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hermitage (Nashville, Tennessee)</span> Historic house in Tennessee, United States

The Hermitage is a historical museum located in Davidson County, Tennessee, United States, 10 miles (16 km) east of downtown Nashville. The 1,000-acre (400 ha)+ site was owned by Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, from 1804 until his death at the Hermitage in 1845. It also serves as his final resting place. Jackson lived at the property intermittently until he retired from public life in 1837.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peterboro, New York</span> Hamlet in New York, United States

Peterboro, located approximately 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Syracuse, New York, is a historic hamlet and currently the administrative center for the Town of Smithfield, Madison County, New York, United States. Peterboro has a Post Office, ZIP code 13134.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerrit Smith</span> American abolitionist and politician

Gerrit Smith, also spelled Gerritt Smith, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860, but only served a single term in the House of Representatives from 1853 to 1854.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Plantation</span> Historical site

Shirley Plantation is an estate on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. It is located on scenic byway State Route 5, between Richmond and Williamsburg. It is the oldest active plantation in Virginia and the oldest family-owned business in North America, dating back to 1614, with operations starting in 1648. It used about 70 to 90 slaves at a time for plowing the fields, cleaning, childcare, and cooking. It was added to the National Register in 1969 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodlawn (Alexandria, Virginia)</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Woodlawn is a historic house located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Originally a part of Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic plantation estate, it was subdivided in the 19th century by abolitionists to demonstrate the viability of a free labor system. The address is now 9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, Virginia, but due to expansion of Fort Belvoir and reconstruction of historic Route 1, access is via Woodlawn Road slightly south of Jeff Todd Way/State Route 235. The house is a designated National Historic Landmark, primarily for its association with the Washington family, but also for the role it played in the historic preservation movement. It is now a museum property owned and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highland (James Monroe house)</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Highland, formerly Ash Lawn–Highland, located near Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, and adjacent to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, was the estate of James Monroe, a Founding Father and fifth president of the United States. Purchased in 1793, Monroe and his family permanently settled on the property in 1799 and lived at Highland for twenty-five years. Personal debt forced Monroe to sell the plantation in 1825. Before and after selling Highland, Monroe spent much of his time living at the plantation house at his large Oak Hill estate near Leesburg, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villa Louis</span> Historic house in Wisconsin, United States

The Villa Louis is a National Historic Landmark located on St. Feriole Island, in Prairie du Chien, southwestern Wisconsin. The villa and estate are a historical museum operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society. The site has been restored to its appearance during the late 19th century, when it was the estate of the prominent H. Louis Dousman family, descendants of a fur trader and entrepreneur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Gulian</span> Historic house in New York, United States

Mount Gulian is a reconstructed 18th century Dutch manor house on the Hudson River in the town of Fishkill, New York, United States of America. The original house served as the headquarters of Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben during the American Revolutionary War and was the place where the Society of the Cincinnati was founded. The site is registered as a National Historic Landmark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Airy Plantation</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, is the first neo-Palladian villa mid-Georgian plantation house built in the United States. It was constructed in 1764 for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his generation, upon the burning of his family's older house. John Ariss is the attributed architect and builder. Tayloe's daughter, Rebecca and her husband Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the only pair of brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence are buried on the estate, as are many other Tayloes. Before the American Civil War, Mount Airy was a prominent racing horse stud farm, as well as the headquarters of about 10-12 separate but interdependent slave plantations along the Rappahannock River. Mount Airy is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark as well as on the Virginia Landmarks Register and is still privately owned by Tayloe's descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bremo Historic District</span> Historic district in Virginia, United States

Bremo, also known as Bremo Plantation or Bremo Historic District, is a plantation estate covering over 1,500 acres (610 ha) on the west side of Bremo Bluff in Fluvanna County, Virginia. The plantation includes three separate estates, all created in the 19th century by the planter, soldier, and reformer John Hartwell Cocke on his family's 1725 land grant. The large neo-palladian mansion at "Upper" Bremo was designed by Cocke in consultation with John Neilson, a master joiner for Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. The Historic District also includes two smaller residences known as Lower Bremo and Bremo Recess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Clare (Maryland)</span> Historic house in Maryland, United States

Mount Clare, also known as Mount Clare Mansion and generally known today as the Mount Clare Museum House, is the oldest Colonial-era structure in the City of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The Georgian style of architecture plantation house exhibits a somewhat altered five-part plan. It was built on a Carroll family plantation beginning in 1763 by barrister Charles Carroll the Barrister, (1723–1783), a descendant of the last Gaelic Lords of Éile in Ireland and a distant relative of the much better-known Charles Carroll of Carrollton, (1737–1832), longest living signer of the Declaration of Independence and the richest man in America in his later years, also the layer of the First Stone of the new Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, just a short distance away in 1828.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peterboro Land Office</span> Historic commercial building in New York, United States

The Peterboro Land Office is located in the hamlet of Peterboro, in the Town of Smithfield in Madison County, New York. The small, Federal style building was built in 1804. It was constructed of locally produced brick laid in Flemish bond on the facade and common bond elsewhere. The main room is 24 by 28 feet. The interior has plaster walls and ceiling and a brick over plank floor. The entrance vestibule is in the center of the south wall between two windows. There is a window each on the east and west walls. The north walls has built in shelves and drawers on the east side and a 4-foot-high (1.2 m) iron vault door on the west side.

Ann Carroll Smith was an American abolitionist, mother of Elizabeth Smith Miller, and the spouse of Gerrit Smith. Her older brother was Henry Fitzhugh.

Greene Smith (1842–1886) was an American amateur scientist and taxidermist with a specific interest in ornithology. His father was Gerrit Smith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fugitive Slave Convention</span> Convention held to oppose the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

The Fugitive Slave Convention was held in Cazenovia, New York, on August 21 and 22, 1850. It was a fugitive slave meeting, the biggest ever held in the United States. Madison County, New York, was the abolition headquarters of the country, because of philanthropist and activist Gerrit Smith, who lived in neighboring Peterboro, New York, and called the meeting "in behalf of the New York State Vigilance Committee." Hostile newspaper reports refer to the meeting as "Gerrit Smith's Convention". Nearly fifty fugitives attended—the largest gathering of fugitive slaves in the nation's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timbuctoo, New York</span>

Timbuctoo, New York, was a mid-19th century farming community of African-American homesteaders in the remote town of North Elba, New York. It was located in the vicinity of 44.22°N 73.99°W, near today's Lake Placid village, in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Contrary to the information given out by donor Gerrit Smith, who said that the lots were in clusters, they were spread out over an area 40 miles (64 km) north to south, and 15 miles (24 km) east to west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring Hill Historic Home (Massillon, OH)</span> Historic site of Underground Railroad

Spring Hill is a historic home museum in Massillon, Ohio. The estate was settled and started by Thomas and Charity Rotch, and it was eventually owned by the Wales family for three generations. Spring Hill is recognized on the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The estate encompasses the main house and several outbuildings, including a smokehouse, spring house, milk house, and wool house

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. 1 2 "Gerrit Smith Estate". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. January 17, 2008. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 4 LouAnn Wurst (September 21, 2001). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Gerrit Smith Estate" (PDF). National Park Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 2, 2012.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. Thomas, George (January 5, 1875). "Personal Recollections of Gerrit Smith". Utica. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 18, 2022.