The Gilmore Cabin

The Gilmore Cabin is a simple one-room cabin located a half mile from the Montpelier visitor center. The cabin’s owner, George Gilmore, was born a slave at Montpelier in 1810, but it is his life after emancipation that is the story. Gilmore, like millions of other emancipated African Americans, suddenly found himself with choices about where to live and how to make a living. He leased the land and built the cabin in 1870, creating a self-reliant  homestead of gardens, stockyard and orchard. Like all subsistence farmers, white and black, Gilmore and each family member, participated in the cash economy through part-time employment, small enterprises (such as his wife’s work washing and mending clothes) and selling surplus farm goods. In 1910, he purchased 16 acres from Madison’s descendents. Gilmore’s descendents have assisted in archaeology and research at the farm. Montpelier is undergoing extensive restoration, but the mansion house is open during the project. This is a rare opportunity to tour the site while under construction.