Project Description
Sadie Ford Heritage Farm and Art Center
73.3 acres opposite the entrance to Cedars of Lebanon State Park The house and outbuildings, including a milking barn, livestock barn, and corncrib, are characteristic of an early-to-mid 20th-century working farm. As the last extant pre-park farm in the area, this property allows the park to create a furnished, functioning farm circa 1920-1937 for an immersive, year-round, educational experience of living history open to the public.
Working Historic Farm
THE HOUSE
The 1920s-era house, built for local school teachers Delta and Sadie Ford, retains its historic character with an intact chimney, original wood windows featuring diamond encasement details, shed roof dormer, stone foundation, and farm setting. Additions to the rear of the house in the 1950s will be removed, and other postWPA-era or non-historic upgrades will be corrected during rehabilitation.
As the farm's centerpiece, the house will feature period furnishings and decorations, serving as a museum for artifacts, photographs, and documents to celebrate early cultural life and the park's history with interpretive displays on area pre-history and settlement, WPA, and 1940s army maneuvers. Options for facility rental and use as a classroom or meeting space are planned.
MILKING BARN
The farm will feature early agricultural crops (cotton, tobacco, wheat, sorghum), heirloom vegetables, and farm animals (goats, chickens). A workshop with period tools, a blacksmith shop, period farm equipment, and animal stalls bring to life the sights of sounds of an early twentieth-century farm.
THE LAND
Approximately 65 acres of the property contain natural cedar glade, barrens, and woodland communities which are slated to be restored through best land management practices, improving habitat for wildlife and plants. The park can partner with local schools for outdoor classroom experiences and with universities to establish ecological and biological monitoring plots for field research.
The farm's location at the gateway to Cedars of Lebanon State Park to the east and State Forest to the west will also facilitate public access for the proposed Wilson County Greenway following Cedar Forest Road to Gladeville.
MANAGEMENT
The Sadie Ford Heritage Farm and Art Center are managed by Cedars of Lebanon State Park, which will coordinate the stabilization and restoration of all buildings and planned activities.
Please Note
The information contained on or available through this website is general in nature. Armour’s Hotel & Spa makes no representation and assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of information contained on, or available through, this website, and such information is subject to change without notice. You are encouraged to confirm any information obtained from or through this website with other sources.
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