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| "It was not to save the houses that our gift is primarily designed. Houses are not sacred. Fire or tornado can too easily destroy them. 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? There will be very little to be seen. But, when we tell of our gift to the Commonwealth, invariably there is one question: “What will they do with the house?” And our answer is: “That is their problem.” (But that is certainly not to intimate that the Smiths do not care about the house.) Nobody has loved the house more than we do. We have been powerful happy here."
Emilie S. Smith |
Judge Macauley Smith donated Blackacre to the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission in 1979 as Kentucky’s first Nature Preserve. Currently, there is a three-way agreement between the Nature Preserves Commission, the Jefferson County Public Schools, and the Blackacre Foundation, Inc. Each organization has a role in the protection, stewardship, and maintenance of Blackacre State Nature Preserve. For more information on current projects, please contact the Jefferson County Public Schools Center for Environmental Education.
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