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Vernon and Leander Johnson wanted nothing more than to preserve a connection with Henderson County's past when they generously donated their long-standing and successful farm with all of its personal possessions to the Henderson County Board of Education in 1987. With that donation, the world of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Henderson County opened before the eyes of all who visit there each year. The farm and all of its outbuildings have become a popular hands-on cultural heritage museum that is now open year-round to area visitors and school children.Johnson Farm, situated on the pastoral French Broad River, was originally the home of a wealthy Spartanburg, SC, tobacco farmer, Oliver Moss. The bricks used to construct the three-story home were fired on site from French Broad River mud. The elegant home, smokehouse and granary were built from 1876-1880, and many other buildings were added in the years that followed. When the tobacco market crashed in the late 1880s, Moss sold 310 acres of his farm, including the house and outbuildings, to Robert H. and Mary Woodfin Leverett, whose third child, Sallie, married Leander Brownlow Johnson in 1890, and became the mother of Vernon and Leander, the brothers who ultimately donated their family farm to Henderson County.
Vernon and Leander Johnson, neither of who ever married or had children, were earnest students themselves and promoters of quality education, and became strong supporters of the Henderson County public school system. They donated the land, on which Rugby Middle School stands today, which is adjacent to their historic farm. It is this generous spirit and the understanding of the importance of their own cultural past that makes the continued work of Historic Johnson Farm worth the time for a visit. Historic Johnson Farm is located four miles north of Hendersonville on Haywood Road (NC Hwy 191), across from Rugby Middle School. The farm is open Tuesday through Friday, 8AM-3:45PM, November through April, and Tuesday through Saturday, May through October. Since it is owned by the school system, the farm operates on the same holiday schedule as the school system. For additional information, please contact the farm at 828-891-6585. (Photos provided by the Historic Johnson Farm.)
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Johnson Farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. While the buildings and artifacts are a vitally important link to the cultural heritage of the county, they are equally important in that the farm is one of the few links in existence that shows the transition that Henderson County made from an agricultural economy to a tourist economy. It is here that visitors can see first hand the working farm existing side by side with the summer retreat that was built and operated by the Johnson family until the late 1950s. 