Historic Smithfield

Historic Smithfield tells the story of American history in a way that no other site can. It sits at the intersection of Colonial America, westward expansion, African slavery, and conflicts between indigenous peoples and European settlers.

Smithfield connects George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, the American Revolution, secession, emancipation, and the Civil War.  It is the birthplace of universities, including Virginia Tech.  It represents the hope, promise and tragedy of American democracy and provides a unique opportunity to gain perspective from the past, insight for the present, and inspiration for the future. 

Historic Smithfield provides support to its community in ways that no other museum does. Did you know that Historic Smithfield provides all of these services and more?

• By far, Historic Smithfield has the greatest and most extensive engagement with Virginia Tech students. More than 250 students from VT were involved last year at Historic Smithfield as members of a service fraternity/sorority, volunteers, interns, or in conjunction with their classroom learning.

  
  

• Historic Smithfield provides SOL-based learning opportunities for elementary, middle, and high school students. Our learning objectives are relevant to all three. We provide equal support to public, private, and home school students alike.

  
  

• Historic Smithfield makes its grounds available to the St. Mary’s NRV Glean Team to grow fresh vegetables for food-insecure families in our region. Our crop yields fill the plates of families in need. How cool is that?

  
  

• Student groups at VT honor the locality’s Native American heritage with a Memorial Garden that, again, makes its harvest available to local families who need our help.

  
  

• No other museum in the New River Valley is tasked with the challenges of preserving such significant, visible, and useful historic resources. How many museums do you know of in America that have such well-preserved buildings that predate the existence of our nation?