John Brown Farm State Historic Site — Local services in Town of North Elba

One of the most important and beautiful historic site's I have have ever been too. The John Brown Farm State Historic Site is surrounded by the serene Adirondack Mountains. John Brown lived at the farm and was later buried here. The site includes the farmhouse where he lived, his gravesite, a memorial, a barn, hiking trails, and a visitor center. Brown lived at the house for less than a year, and it was actually his family who lived at the farm. Brown moved to the area because he was broke and needed a place where his family would be safe. Gerrit Smith was an abolitionist who was giving away land to blacks in the Adirondacks agreed to give John Brown 40 acres and this became Brown's farm in the Adirondacks. Brown knew that he would not spend much time here was in Kansas fighting against slavery in the 1850's. The house does have artifacts from John Brown's time there. The floorboards in the house are original. Other parts of it have been renovated for historic preservation. In the barn, there is an exhibit about Timbuctoo, the community of freed slaves that John Brown's house was a part of. Tours of the house are given at the top of the hour. The hiking trails in the area are scenic and the visitor center has trail maps for them. You can visit the grounds for free and donations are accepted. A very important site that should be...

While vacationing in the area, we decided to stop at the historical John Brown Farm. When you first pull up to the site, you notice the bronze statue of Brown with an African American boy. Memorial Field has many cards posted with various instances of injustice that have taken place over time to people and it just made me so said to read some of them. It made me stop and think that at any time, no matter the situation, that that could have been me. As you walk down the path that takes you to the house, the small cemetary of where Brown is buried is to the left. A large bolder with two bronze placards tells of who all is buried with Brown. Across from the bolder are other grave markers, those of his children. Upon entering the house, the parlor is to your right. The room is modestly furnished and the only two pieces that actually belong to Brown and his wife are the wooden desk and bookcase. The other pieces allow you to get a sense of, what the furnishing may have looked like during that time. If time permits, I would love to take another tour of the house and barn before we leave the area to go back home, mostly to take more photos of inside the home and barn. If you love history then you definitely want to stop and check it out. Definetly worth stopping. Operate on donations...

I was 2 hours away from John Brown's place, and I said if I don't do it now, who knows when I'll get back to it!

I'm so glad that I stopped. I spent 3 hours there. I visited his grave first, then the barn where there was an exhibit called "Timbuktoo (sp)" which detailed the history of abolitionism and Black farming communities in the area which drew Brown to settle there in 1849. Then I went to the family house and took a guided tour. The guide was super-informative, and I came away from this visit with a lot more knowledge about John Brown etc.

Oh, and another item to recommend a visit: the setting! It's a gorgeous farm in the Adirondacks, and it was a beautiful (if smokey) day, vistas of the nearby mountain peaks, lots of fields, flowers, and forests.

Do yourself a favor: if you like history even a tiny bit, try to visit John Brown's site if you're within a few hours' drive. You'll be glad you did. (If the average adult visited this place and came away nonplussed or feeling that it was boring, you'd have to smack them around a bit to make sure they're...