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The Blackacre Foundation
Education at Blackacre
Blackacre History

Blackacre’s Families
(1881-1979)

The Tyler Homestead and Surviving Structures
(1785-1881)

The Tyler Settlement and Rural Historic District (established ca. 1785)

Conservation
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Maps

• Trail Map and Brochure
• Blackacre Homestead

Programs

• Spring & Summer 2008 (PDF, 120KB)

Blackacre Newsletter

• Fall 2007 (PDF, 2.9MB)
• Spring 2007 (PDF, 1.3MB)
• Fall 2006 (PDF, 594KB)
• Spring 2006 (PDF, 609KB)
• Fall 2005 (PDF, 496KB)
• Spring 2005 (PDF, 3.5MB)
• Fall 2004 (PDF, 2.4MB)
• Spring 2004 (PDF, 783KB)

BLACKACRE HISTORY

Creation of the Blackacre State Nature Preserve
(1979-Present)

Judge Macauley Smith and Emilie Strong Smith gave Blackacre, their 170-acre farm on Tucker Station Road, to the newly established Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission in 1979, creating Kentucky's first state preserve. The Smiths had owned the 1844 Presley Tyler house and surrounding acreage since 1950, and they wanted to preserve Blackacre from encroaching development in the formerly agricultural Floyd's Fork basin. Later, in 1983, the Smiths established the Blackacre Foundation to provide financial support and stewardship of the preserve’s grounds and historic structures.

"It is the land that is sacred. The land can never be restored after bulldozers and blacktop. I can well imagine in 50 years what urban people will need most to see is not what our museums hold, but what did farm land look like?"
--Emilie Strong Smith