McCormick Farm

Robert McCormick moved from Pennsylvania to this North Carolina farm in 1779 and built a sawmill, a cider mill, a distillery, two grain mills, and a smokehouse His son, also Robert, added a brick manor house in the summer of 1822. The younger Robert was an inventor, a talent that his son Cyrus inherited. Cyrus and his helper, Jo Anderson, studied the reaper that Robert had invented and  produced an improved reaper that worked under all conditions. The first hand built models were sold in the 1840s but it wasn't until the 1850s that sales took off. By then Cyrus and his brothers and business partners, William and Leander, had moved to Chicago and built a factory which, in 1856, was producing more than 4000 reapers a year. With a reaper a farmers could harvest 12 acres a day; previously he could harvest only .5 acre a day. 

 

The McCormick family donated their farm to Virginia Tech in 1954. Eight original buildings still stand -  a grist mill, blacksmith shop, slave quarters, carriage house, manor house, smoke house, schoolroom, and housekeeper's quarter - but only the grist mill and blacksmith shop are regularly open to visitors. Other buildings may be open for special events.

 Nothing is accessible. The grist mill and blacksmith shop are located at the top of a hill, The ramp at the grist mill was installed to span a dip in the ground, not for wheelchair access as there isn't a large enough opening in the fence for a wheelchair. The bridge that spans the stream has steps. The nature trail has roots and rocks. 

RVs will fit in the parking lot as long as it's not busy.  Farm  37.93183, -79.21296