Somerset Place offers a comprehensive view of 19th-century life on a large North Carolina plantation. Originally it included more than 100,000 acres of woods and swampland bordering Lake Phelps in Washington County. During its 80 years as an active plantation (1785-1865) hundreds of acres of crops were grown, and sawmills turned out thousands of feet of lumber.
By 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Somerset Place was one of the upper South's largest plantations. Three generations of owners, some 850 enslaved people and various employees lived there. Facilities included a chapel, hospital, gristmill and barns.
Somerset is now the only such plantation in North Carolina that is preserved as a state historic site. It is part of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources (www.ncdcr.gov).
Events at Somerset and other state historic sites and history museums are listed at www.ncculture.com.
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2572 Lake Shore Road Creswell, North Carolina 27928
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