Somerset Place
- For the Georgian crescent in Bath, England, see Somerset Place (Bath).
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Somerset Place State Historic Site
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Somerset Place
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| Nearest city: | Creswell, North Carolina |
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| Coordinates: | 35°47′15″N 76°24′20″W / 35.7875°N 76.40556°W |
| Area: | 7 acres (2.8 ha) |
| Built: | 1830 |
| Architectural style: | Other, "double-pile" plan |
| Governing body: | State |
| NRHP Reference#: | 70000481[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | February 26, 1970 |
Somerset Place is a former plantation near Creswell in Washington County, North Carolina, along the northern shore of Lake Phelps, and now a State Historic Site. Somerset Place operated as a plantation from 1785 until 1865. Before the end of the American Civil War, Somerset Place had become one of the Upper South's largest plantations.[2]
In 1969, Somerset Place was designated as a State Historic Site. In 1986, descendants of African American slaves from Somerset Place planned a gathering known as Somerset Homecoming.[3] The event was inspired by a book titled "Somerset Homecoming" written by the property's current manager Dorothy Spruill Redford.[4]
Visitors can tour the 1830s period plantation house, the dairy, kitchen/laundry, kitchen rations building, smokehouse and salting house. The site features several reconstructed buildings for the plantation's slaves, including two homes and the plantation hospital; the grounds include stocks that were used to punish slaves.
The visitor center's exhibits display the history of the site and antebellum North Carolina. There is also a gift shop.
Nature trails lead to Pettigrew State Park, which adjoins the site.
[edit] References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2010-07-09. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html.
- ^ "Somerset Place - colossal slave-built plantation - North Carolina's African-American Culture: Advertising Travel Supplement" in FindArticles, April-May, 1995. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
- ^ " Restored Plantation Is Peek Into The Past" in The Virginian-Pilot, June 1, 1997. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
- ^ "Dorothy Spruill Redford" in UNC-TV, 2001. Retrieved May 2, 2008.
[edit] External links
- Somerset Place - official site
- An Historic Albemarle Tour Site
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Coordinates: 36°05′58″N 79°52′12″W / 36.099357°N 79.8700627°W
