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Cyrus McCormick's Farm (Walnut Grove)

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Walnut Grove
Early 19th century–present. 128 McCormick's Farm Cir.
  • (Photograph by D Hughes)
  • (Photograph by D Hughes)

Cyrus H. McCormick, inventor of the first practical grain reaper, was born on this farm in 1809. He successfully demonstrated the reaper in a nearby field in 1831 and patented the machine in 1834. The site includes the McCormick house (1822); the log workshop where the first reaper was built, with a replica of the reaper; a log gristmill; and a smokehouse. McCormick's descendants donated the farm to Virginia Tech in 1954, which in 1956 established the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center here.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Cyrus McCormick's Farm (Walnut Grove)", [Raphine, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-RB38.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 137-137.

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