Smithfield Plantation is a small but useful dose of local history on the edge of the Virginia Tech campus. The house dates to the 18th century and was home to the Preston family, whose land and influence shaped much of early Blacksburg and the New River Valley.
The house looks modest from outside, but the tour is the point. Guides talk through frontier settlement, family politics, enslaved labour, and the way the valley connected to the wider history of Virginia. It is close enough to campus to pair with a walk across the Drillfield.