Bement-Billings Farmstead (US)
Site tells the story of a prosperous Tioga County farmstead in late 1700s and 1800s. Includes a living history museum, furnished 1800s house, reconstructed blacksmith shop, barn, and carriage house. Also 1.5 miles of groomed hiking trails on the 95 acre property open to the public.
Built in 1810, the only living history museum in the Southern Tier.
Asa Bement, Jr. was among the first settlers in Newark Valley. He brought his young family from Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the 1790’s to settle here on the banks of the east branch of Owego Creek. His 350 acre farm included tilled fields, pastures, and woodlands. In addition to this home, Asa built a saw mill, a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, and barns on his property. The Bement farmstead was one of the most prosperous in Northern Tioga County.
These rooms and the exterior of the house reflect the Greek Revival style popular in the early-to-mid 1800’s.
Over the years the property was owned by the Ford and later the Billings families. In 1977, Mrs. Myrtie Louise Billings Hills deeded the house to the Newark Valley Historical Society to be preserved as a living history museum. In 1997 she gave 90 acres of the original farm to the society. Today the house is furnished as it was in the early 1800s. Additional structures on the site include a reconstructed blacksmith shop, the threshing barn, a wood shop, and carriage shed.
Today on the farmstead, costumed interpreters demonstrate 19th century skills and trades such as blacksmithing,herb garden, open hearth cooking, spinning and weaving, candle making, textiles and woodworking as they were done in Asa’s day. Hands-on activities.