Built on the edge of the frontier wilderness, Smithfield offered a last vestige of civilization as frontiersmen traveled west. The sophistication and generous scale of the architecture recalls many of the plantation homes in Tidewater.

Colonel and Mrs. William Preston built their home on part his vast holdings that stretched from Montgomery County, Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky. The Prestons raised their twelve children in this house. In later years, two Virginia Governors were born at Smithfield--James Patton Preston and John B. Floyd.

The APVA restored the manor house in 1964. The four major rooms of the house are filled with a decorative arts collection from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. The house also features a winter kitchen and museum area displaying Native American and local artifacts. A walk in the garden restored by the Garden Club of Virginia rounds out a trip to Smithfield Plantation.