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Gerrit Smith Estate Is Located in the Rural Madison County Hamlet of Peterboro, Approximately 25 Miles East of Syracuse, New York

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Gerrit Smith Estate Is Located in the Rural Madison County Hamlet of Peterboro, Approximately 25 Miles East of Syracuse, New York NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK NOMINATION NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 SMITH, GERRIT ESTATE Page 1 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 1. NAME OF PROPERTY Historic Name: SMITH, GERRIT, ESTATE Other Name/Site Number: 2. LOCATION Street & Number: Main Street Not for publication: City/Town: Peterboro Vicinity: State: New York County: Madison Code: 053 Zip Code: 13134 3. CLASSIFICATION Ownership of Property Category of Property Private: X Building(s): Public-Local: X District: Public-State: Site: Public-Federal: Structure: Object: Number of Resources within Property Contributing Noncontributing 3 3 buildings 1 sites structures objects 4 3 Total Number of Contributing Resources Previously Listed in the National Register: Name of Related Multiple Property Listing: NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 SMITH, GERRIT ESTATE Page 2 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 4. STATE/FEDERAL AGENCY CERTIFICATION As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this ____ nomination ____ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register Criteria. Signature of Certifying Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of Commenting or Other Official Date State or Federal Agency and Bureau 5. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that this property is: ___ Entered in the National Register ___ Determined eligible for the National Register ___ Determined not eligible for the National Register ___ Removed from the National Register ___ Other (explain): Signature of Keeper Date of Action NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 SMITH, GERRIT ESTATE Page 3 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form 6. FUNCTION OR USE Historic: Domestic Sub: Single Dwelling Commerce Business Current: Domestic Sub: Single Dwelling Vacant 7. DESCRIPTION ARCHITECTURAL CLASSIFICATION: EARLY REPUBLIC/ Federal MID-19TH CENTURY/ Other: Board and Batten; Rustic/Chalet MATERIALS: Foundation: STONE Walls: BRICK; WOOD Roof: WOOD; ASPHALT; METAL Other: NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 SMITH, GERRIT ESTATE Page 4 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Describe Present and Historic Physical Appearance. The Gerrit Smith Estate is located in the rural Madison County hamlet of Peterboro, approximately 25 miles east of Syracuse, New York. The nominated property consists of three parcels totaling 7.78 acres bounded on the south side by Main Street, and to the north by Oneida Creek. The three parcels included in the nomination represent the core of the historic Gerrit Smith Estate. During the nineteenth century, the Gerrit Smith Estate encompassed an undetermined number of buildings located on approximately 30 acres of land. The estate was described as a village by itself, with about thirty buildings located on the premises.1 Many of these structures are included within the NHL boundaries, including the extant Peterboro Land Office2 with an adjacent smokehouse; the site of the Smith mansion, built between 1804 and 1806; the site of an early nineteenth century temperance hotel; the site of an early nineteenth century store; an early nineteenth century frame house referred to as “the lodge”; the sites of two other dwellings; a nineteenth century barn and an adjacent laundry; the site of what may have been an icehouse; the site of a small pavilion and the remains of its roof which may have been a second icehouse; the foundation and ruins of a building that once housed Greene Smith’s extensive ornithology museum; the ruins of the nineteenth century garden cottage and adjacent storage building; and the site of a gazebo. In addition, the boundaries of the NHL for the Gerrit Smith Estate include numerous traces of nineteenth century landscape features, such as the deteriorated remains of a nineteenth century stone garden wall; the remains of the winding driveway which once encircled the mansion before terminating at the barn; a mid-nineteenth century wrought iron fence along Main Street; a mid- nineteenth century cut limestone dam and rubble stone retaining walls along Oneida Creek. Other buildings are believed to have existed on the site during Gerrit Smith’s occupancy. While the function of all of these buildings are not known, the estate included a carpenter and blacksmith shop, a manual labor school for the education of “colored boys,” and an unidentified building located near the “bird house.” It is also likely that many other utilitarian structures necessary for the operation of a large estate were also present, including privies, woodsheds and other small storage sheds or barns, and possibly a summer kitchen. The historic locations of these features and other potential archaeological resources associated with the estate are presently unknown. The western half of the nominated property is characterized by lawns, open fields and large trees, some of which appear to represent historic ornamental plantings. The eastern half of the site is thickly wooded with native species. The former estate lands east of the current boundary are occupied by utility buildings and parking areas and have been excluded from the nomination due to lack of integrity. 1 Frothingham, O. B., Gerrit Smith: A Biography (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1878), 138. 2 Smith, Gerrit, Estate, National Register of Historic Places Nomination, National Park Service, 1984 & 1997. NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 SMITH, GERRIT ESTATE Page 5 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Although landscape features, ruins, and the archaeological remains of historic buildings are described as specifically as possible in this assessment, all of these features are counted together as one contributing site. Land Office and Smokehouse (contributing buildings) Description. The small, single-story office built in 1804 reflects the Federal style in its design . The building is oriented south toward Main Street, and features a gabled facade with a projecting vestibule at the center. The front doorway, located at the vestibule, consists of an elliptically- arched opening, a rectangular six-panel door, and an elliptical transom with a missing light. Windows at the front and sides of the office are headed by flat brick arches and contain six-over- six light sash in the openings where they survive. The glass panels were manufactured at the Peterboro Glass works, owned by Peter Smith. A recessed elliptical panel is centered above the vestibule in the front gable of the office. At the north or rear elevation, a gabeled vault room projects from the left or east side. The windows in the vault are secured with iron bars. A small detached brick smokehouse is located adjacent to the projecting vault room at the right or west side of the office. Architectural trim at the exterior of both the office and smokehouse includes period cornice moldings and returns. The brick used in constructing the two buildings is a light-colored, poorly-fired, orange/brown. The brick is laid in Flemish bond at the facade of the Land Office, and English bond elsewhere. The roofs of both buildings are covered with new wood shingles. The interior of the office consists of brick flooring above a plank-on-joist sub floor, plaster-on- brick walls and plaster-on-split-lath ceiling. Trim includes wood window and door casings, and a partial picture mold and chair rail. A built-in cabinet is located along the north wall, west of a shelf chimney which historically was connected to a stove. The chimney is built of brick and emerges from the roof at the extreme north end of the ridge. The vault is separate from the rest of the office by a low iron door with dual lock boxes. In addition, the vault is guarded by iron bars covering the small window opening located at the rear of the vault and by a vaulted brick ceiling. There is evidence of a bricked-over doorway in the east face of the office, facing the mansion house which was probably the entranceway used by Peter and Gerrit Smith; a window was subsequently inserted into this opening. History and Integrity. The land office served as the focal point of the Smith family’s real estate activity and business ventures. The building housed the records and accounts of vast land holdings in New York and other states. The brick office and adjacent smokehouse are located in the southwest corner of the estate and were built simultaneously in 1804. The Land Office and smokehouse were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. A condition assessment for the Land Office was prepared in 1994.3 3 Crawford & Stearns, The Peterboro Land Office Condition Assessment, 1994. NPS Form 10-900 USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) OMB No. 1024-0018 SMITH, GERRIT ESTATE Page 6 United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form Barn (contributing building) Description. A barn dating to the mid-nineteenth century stands less than 100 feet northeast of the “lodge.” Largely unaltered, the barn has a mortise and tenon timber frame on a mortared stone foundation.
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