Smithfield Historic District

Smithfield is a compact tidewater town of about 1,000 people on the Pagan River, laid out after the Isle of Wight County court moved its seat there in 1749. County surveyor Jordan Thomas platted seventy-two lots, each large enough for a garden, orchard and livestock. The historic district takes in the original town, with the greatest concentration of notable buildings along tree-lined Church Street. Houses range from mid-eighteenth-century Georgian examples such as the Wentworth-Barrett and Todd houses to Federal townhouses, Victorian homes built by peanut and ham-packing families, and Romanesque Revival churches from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Smithfield was a port exporting staves, peas and bacon to England and the West Indies, and it later became known for its packing houses and peanut industry. Its architecture is small in scale and generally well preserved, and recent restorations have helped protect important landmarks. Utility poles and some modern commercial buildings are the main visual drawbacks noted.