About Smithfield
Historic Smithfield is an independent 501(c)(3) operated and managed by The Smithfield-Preston Foundation. It became a museum in 1959 when Janie Preston Boulware Lamb, great, great, granddaughter of Colonel William Preston gave Smithfield to the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities as a museum. Smithfield began operating independently of the APVA (now Virginia Antiquities) in 2018 when the Smithfield-Preston Foundation took full ownership of the property. It partnered with Virginia Tech, which holds an historic preservation easement on the manor house, out buildings, and historic landscape.
Smithfield is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register and is a member of the The New River Heritage Coalition. In 2014, Smithfield was designated by the Virginia General Assembly as the Family Homestead of Virginia Governors.
Today, Historic Smithfield uses the complex histories of the region's indigenous peoples, the Preston Family, and the enslaved community to inform our present and future. Historic Smithfield seeks to inspire a new generation of Americans through the stories and values of the Preston Family and all those who lived at Smithfield. These values are liberty, courage, leadership, education, and justice.
