Pennsylvania, Mifflin County, Lewistown
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Former Site of Red Lion Inn
First troops to answer
President Abraham Lincoln's
Call to Arms
for the Civil War
were mustered here
Mifflin County
Historic Place
Circa 1871
(Entertainment • Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Former Site of Red Lion Inn
First troops to answer
President Abraham Lincoln's
Call to Arms
for the Civil War
were mustered here
Mifflin County
Historic Place
Circa 1871
(Entertainment • Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Constructed in 1835
Col. Jeremiah Wadsworth
In Memory of the Courageous
This Property
Center
Mark Twain
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
From this point, you have many tour options inviting you to think about another time here at this 1120–acre National Historic Landmark. Use the map guide you to any of the many points of interest you’ll find throughout Andrew Jackson’s plantation. Visit the President’s tomb, the Jackson Family Cemetery, the First Hermitage, the Hermitage Church, and many sites that tell the stories of those enslaved at The Hermitage. Stroll the mansion grounds, or hike our 1.5-mile nature trail.
The idyllic planter’s life presented to white visitors by the Jackson family was based on the unpaid labor of over 150 enslaved black men, women, and children. Without the grueling labor of these individuals, the Jackson family could not have lived so lavishly. Of the enslaved workers that Andrew Jackson owned at the end of his life, only about ten worked in and around the mansion. A few more, such as the blacksmith and carpenter, had special skills. The majority of the enslaved, however, worked in Jackson’s fields, tending and harvesting his crops. With the variety of crops grown at The Hermitage, this sun-up to sundown fieldwork was nearly year round. Andrew Jackson followed a common “farm management” practice of his time keeping enslaved families together. Owners thought that this practice discouraged running away, since it was unlikely that an entire family could safely make their passage to freedom. In addition to encourage family units, Jackson also chose to cluster housing for the enslaved tightly to confine them to a small easily monitored area.
The stately trees and park-like grounds of today’s Hermitage bear scant resemblance to the working plantation of Andrew Jackson’s time. As the farm developed, trees were cleared to make room for fields and pastures.
While the bold and dramatic claim center stage, history is also written in the quite, humble ways...and lives. Alfred Jackson was unique among the enslaved at The Hermitage. Born at The Hermitage to Betty, the cook, and Ned, the carpenter, Alfred became the wagoner in charge of Hermitage vehicles and horses. He married Gracy Bradley, Sarah Jackson’s personal maid, with whom he had two children, Augustus, and Sara. Alfred lived nearly his entire life here. He witnessed the growth of The Hermitage into a bustling cotton plantation, then its decline before and after the Civil War, and finally its rebirth as a shrine to Jackson.
The Hermitage icehouse, a common feature on larger farms and plantations during the nineteenth century, stood on the north side of the smokehouse.
Prescribed Grazing at the Hermitage improves forage, animal, soil, and water resources. 
Andrew Jackson called it his farm, but in reality, The Hermitage was a large cotton plantation dependent upon enslaved labor. All the agricultural actives on Jackson’s 1000 – acre plantation supported his cotton. On average, Jackson’s slaves planted and tended about 200 acres of cotton each year. Of the remaining acreage, portions were wooded or laid fallow, but much of it produced crops that supported his family, slaves, and livestock. Jackson wanted his plantation to be as self-sufficient as possible to insulate himself in the lean years. The more he produced on his own, the greater his profit, which he invested in more land and slaves, buildings, and luxury goods from wallpaper to coffee. 
This terra cotta wall is all that remains of what was to be a grandiose hotel and resort. It was started during the great land boom of the 1920's. The developer, Robert (Bob) Pacetti was a native of this area. His ancestors first came to this country with the British Turnbull colony of New Smyrna in 1768. His grandfather, Bartola Clemente Pacetti, settled on the A. Pons (Ponce) Spanish land grant near here in 1840. Portions of the grant were sold in the 1870's, but this area, (Lighthouse Point Park), remained in the family. Bob Pacetti called his subdivision "Inlet Terrace", sold lots, and began construction of a hotel. The name of Mosquito Inlet was changed to Ponce Inlet, a name more palatable than the original. Suddenly, in the fall of 1926, a disastrous hurricane ripped across South Florida, costing many lives and millions of dollars in property damage. The land boom ended. Banks closed all over the state and in Daytona Beach as well. Work soon stopped at the hotel site. Within a few years Bob Pacetti disappeared from the area. Through the years vandals destroyed much of the property and anything of value was carried off. For over fourty years the foundation stood here. Then in 1982 a number of lots were sold to a dutch firm called Transol U.S.A. A bold plan to build high-rise condominums was presented to the now existing Town of Ponce Inlet. The tall buildings were prohibited, under a town ordinance which restricts building hights, to protect the lighthouse nearby. A revised plan with a reduced height of 35 feet was also turned down by the city. The property was then sold to the State of Florida who entered into an agreement with Volusia County to operate the park, which was developed with Ponce de Leon Port Authority funds. During the parks construction, the hotel ruins were destroyed. Now recent storms have uncovered a portion of history.
