Marsh, George Perkins, Boyhood Home

History

The George Perkins Marsh Boyhood Home, also known as the Marsh-Billings House or Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Mansion, is the architectural centerpiece of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, a National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont, United States. The house, built in 1805 and enlarged several times, is historically significant as the boyhood home of George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882), an early conservationist, and as the home later in the 19th century of Frederick H. Billings (1823–1890), a businessman and philanthropist who was a cofounder of the Northern Pacific Railroad. It is also architecturally significant as a high-quality example of Queen Anne architecture, alterations and enlargements commissioned by Billings and designed by Henry Hudson Holley. The house and its surrounding gardens were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967. The 550-acre (220 ha) estate on which it stands was given by Mary French Rockefeller (the granddaughter of Frederick Billings) and Laurance Rockefeller to the people of the United States in 1992.

The park also preserves the site where Frederick Billings established a managed forest and a progressive dairy farm. The name honors Billings and the other owners of the property: George Perkins Marsh, Mary Montagu Billings French, Laurance Rockefeller, and Mary French Rockefeller. The Rockefellers transferred the property to the federal government in 1992. It is the only unit of the United States National Park System in Vermont (except for a portion of the Appalachian Trail). The park was honored in 2020 by being placed on Vermont's America the Beautiful quarter.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The official nomination form is linked under Sources.