Gerrit Smith

Gerrit Smith

Gerrit Smith in an undated photo portrait by Mathew Brady.

Gerrit Smith Mansion

Gerrit Smith Mansion

Gerrit Smith's mansion. Photo courtesy of Norman K. Dann, used with permission.

Mansion Garden

Mansion Garden

This formal garden east of the Smith mansion is believed to be the the "fine grove" described by Julia Griffiths as the site of the second day of the August 1850 anti-Fugitive Slave Law convention. Presumably Frederick Douglass attended the day's events after speaking the day before. The Smith mansion burned down in 1936; the area this garden occupied is now wooded. Photo courtesy of Norman K. Dann, used with permission.

Gerrit Smith Estate

Gerrit Smith Estate

Several period buildings (though not the Smith mansion, which burned in 1936) occupy the Gerrit Smith Estate in the village of Peterboro.

Visitor Center

Visitor Center

This visitor center, open Sundays 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., provides interpretation of the Estate and its structures.

Barn and Land Office

Barn and Land Office

Two of the period buildings include a wooden barn and the brick Land Office (built in 1804 by Peter Smith, founder of Peterboro and father of Gerrit Smith). The Land Office was the nerve center of Gerrit's sprawling real estate empire.

Land Office Plaque

Land Office Plaque

Plaque on the 1804 Peterboro Land Office building.

Landmark Plaque

Landmark Plaque

The Gerrit Smith Estate was named a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

Peterboro Green

Peterboro Green

The Gerrit Smith Estate fronts on Peterboro's historic eighteenth-century village green. A rarity among New York villages, Peterboro's green remains intact, lined almost entirely with homes and commercial buildings well more than a century old. The Smith Estate is out of frame to the left in this photograph; out of frame to the right is the home where Gerrit Smith's daughter Elizabeth and her husband Charles Dudley Miller resided for some eighteen years.

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