Tech alum hired as Smithfield administrator
Doug Anderson
Blacksburg’s Historic Smithfield Plantation has hired a new museum administrator to oversee operations of the privately owned living-history museum adjacent to Virginia Tech.
Doug Anderson, a Virginia Tech alumnus and retired Air Force colonel, will replace former administrator David McKissack, said Bill Foster, president of the Smithfield-Preston Foundation.
McKissack oversaw the historic property for three years before stepping down, Foster said.
Smithfield Plantation and its original pre-Revolutionary War mansion was constructed in the early 1770s on the Western-most frontier for Col. William Preston and was named for his wife, Susanna Smith Preston.
Much of the land around the plantation was donated for Preston & Olin College, which eventually became Virginia Tech.
In recent years, the living-history museum has expanded its offerings to include a special events pavilion, two interpretive cabins and a cider house.
A new living-history addition will open this spring — a blacksmith shop called the Smithfield Forge, according to a Smithfield news release.
Smithfield is owned by the Richmond-based nonprofit Preservation Virginia, which owns and operates several living-history properties across the commonwealth.
The Roanoke Times | 381-1675
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