Archibald Smith Plantation Home

About Archibald Smith Plantation Home

Hidden among the trees in Historic Roswell, Georgia lies the elegant home constructed by one of the town’s founding fathers, Archibald Smith. In 1838, the Smith family and nearly 30 of their slaves left their two plantations in St. Marys, along the southern coast of Georgia, to make a new start with some 300 acres of cotton farmland north of the Roswell Town Square. What this well-to-do 19th Century farming family did not realize when they constructed their home was that it would be preserved by their descendants as an untouched treasure of southern history.

For over 150 years, the Smith’s Plantation Home has stood the test of time as The Civil War was brought to its front steps, and all around it, the small mill village of Roswell erupted into a bustling metropolitan suburb. Perfectly preserved are the Smiths two-story farm house, complete with outbuildings, including servants quarters, a cook house, smoke house, corn crib, barn, carriage house, well, and spring house.

Three generations of the Archibald Smith family lived in this home and saved all of their belongings, large and small, important and trivial, broken or whole. The home and grounds have become one of the best examples of architectural, cultural, and historical interpretation found in the region.