Brown, John, Farm and Gravesite

John Brown's farm in North Elba, near Lake Placid, is a 214-acre property that includes a modest one-and-one-half-story clapboard farmhouse and a small burial plot. Brown arrived in the Adirondacks in 1849 after learning that philanthropist Gerrit Smith had set aside land for Black farm families. He bought 244 acres in 1850, first lived in a log house, and in 1855 moved into a four-room frame house built by his son-in-law. He farmed hay, rye, oats and potatoes, and won prizes for his Devon cattle. The nomination presents the farm as both a cherished home and a practical expression of his concern for former slaves. After his execution in 1859, his body was returned and buried beside a large boulder in front of the house. The graves of Brown, two of his sons and ten followers remain there. The site is now a state-run museum, and a late 19th-century porch was removed in the mid-twentieth century.