Thomas Stone National Historic Site Grounds Hike Map (click to enlarge)

Length: 2-mile loop
Time: 1.5 hours
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

A loop hike around the grounds of Thomas Stone National Historic Site starts at the Visitor Center. The trail passes all of the attractions in the park including the Stone Family Cemetery, Thomas Stone’s Habre de Venture home, and outbuildings from the 1840s. I started the loop hike from behind the Visitor Center and went around in the counterclockwise direction. The other trailhead, which sets you off in the clockwise direction, is at the far end of the Visitor Center parking lot (left of the building if facing it). It makes no difference which way you go, but I wanted to see the cemetery first, and the counterclockwise route is the quickest way to get there.

The cemetery is only a five-minute walk from the Visitor Center. Take the boardwalk behind the building for a short distance until it becomes a gravel path and then a mowed swath cut through the grass. By this time you can see the cemetery in the distance.

Grass path to the Stone Family cemetery, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Thomas and his wife Margaret, who both died within a few months of each other in 1787, are buried at Habre de Venture along with seven other family descendants. In 1776, Margaret was inoculated for small pox and had a devastating reaction to the mercury she ingested as part of the treatment. Her health quickly declined to the point where she became an invalid, and she spent most of the last decade of her life in bed. It is because of this illness that Stone gave up public life in 1785, choosing instead to take care of his sick wife, though he still kept up his law practice. Margaret died on June 3, 1787, in Annapolis (the Stones had moved to Annapolis in 1783 but kept the Habre de Venture estate). Thomas was so distraught that he quit eating and taking care of himself. He died suddenly on October 5th in Alexandria while he was preparing to sail to England for a much needed vacation.

Stone Family cemetery at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Grave of Thomas Stone in the Stone Family Cemetery at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Just a short distance to the east of the Stone Family Cemetery, though not fenced in, is a cemetery for black servants and employees. No records were kept, so there is no way to determine if any slaves were buried here—the Stones did have slaves—but paid servants from the 1900s are definitely here. I didn’t know about the cemetery at the time of my visit, so I didn’t look for it and thus can’t say for sure if there are even any grave markers or other visual evidence of its existence.

The next point of interest on the hike is Stone’s house, Habre de Venture, which you can see from the cemetery. It remained in the Stone family until 1936.

Habre de Venture as seen from the Stone Family Cemetery at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

There are two ways to get to the house: the short way and the long way. The trail forks just beyond the cemetery. A right leads to the house (the short way) while the hiking trail continues to the left (the long way). I chose the long way just to see more of the grounds, though there is no real reason to do this other than to get a little extra exercise.

Trail intersection near the Stone Family Cemetery at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

The long way follows the tree line around a large field, heading south along another mowed path. At the next intersection make a U-turn and follow the directional sign to the MANSION. If you kept straight, you will continue south and end up cutting the two-mile loop hike in half. Do this only if you are looking for shorter hike.

Trail south of the Stone Family Cemetery at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

The trail approaches Habre de Venture from the back side. To continue on the hike, make your way around to the road that runs past the front of the house. At this point you will have hiked a half mile.

Front side of Habre de Venture, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Continue down the dirt road towards a white structure that was once used as a horse barn. This and two other outbuildings on the property were built by Stone’s descendants between 1820 and 1840.

Horse barn at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Just around the corner from the horse barn are the two other outbuildings at Habre de Venture. The white one is a corn crib, and the large, brown structure is a tobacco barn. The National Park Service has hung actual tobacco from the rafters of the barn to demonstrate how it is dried.

Tobacco Barn and corn crib on the grounds of Habre de Venture, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Tobacco Barn on the grounds of Habre de Venture, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Tobacco drying in the Tobacco Barn at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

The corn crib standing today is not the original building, for it was flattened by a tornado in 2002. What you see is a reconstruction by the National Park Service, but it is on the original location, no different than if a tornado flattened it in the 1840s and the Stone’s rebuilt it. The tornado miraculously missed the tobacco barn, though it destroyed the park maintenance building and one of two tenant houses on the property.

Corn crib on the grounds of Habre de Venture, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

The corn crib marks the point where the hiking route departs from the open terrain along the dirt road and heads into the forest. The trail is now an old gravel road that is covered in grass. A sign indicates that horseback riding is allowed on this trail, but no bikes.

Trail around the Habre de Venture estate splits from the dirt road near the corn crib, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

About .2 mile down the trail (.9 mile into the overall hike) is a building known as the Tenant House. This was built around 1860 by the Stone family and used as a rental home for tenant farmers on the property, who may have been former slaves of the family. (Note: In 2025 a Ranger told me that this building is now in such bad shape that it most likely will be torn down, so it may not be there by the time you do the hike.)

Tenet House on the grounds of Habre de Venture, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Once past the Tenant House, the trail proceeds down a moderate hill before leveling out and making a big turn to the left. It crosses a creek via a stone footbridge just before coming to an intersection. If you had stayed straight earlier when you made the U-turn towards Habre de Venture, this is where you would have come out. To continue the hike, stay straight, following the HIKING TRAIL arrow as indicated on the directional signage at the intersection. The trail map makes it look like this is a right turn, but it is not drawn correctly.

Intersection at the southwest area of the loop around the Habre de Venture estate, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

About .2 mile farther down the trail is an extremely steep hill. I’m talking tippy-toe steep, which means it’s so steep that you must push off on your tip toes to move forward. I rarely ran into hills this steep in the Smoky Mountains. Fortunately it only takes about a minute to get to the top, but because of this one hill some people may not be able to hike the trail. The two dimensional photo below does not do the hill justice.

Steep hill at the southern end of the trail around the Habre de Venture estate, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

Just after the steep hill, the trail begins making a gradual U-turn back north towards the Visitor Center, this time along another mowed grass path that hugs the tree line of a small forest. The trail is out in the open from this point on, but depending on the angle of the sun, the trees may end up providing some shade.

Final stretch of the Habre de Venture grounds hike back to the Visitor Center, Thomas Stone National Historic Site

The rest of the hike is uneventful. You eventually come back to the Visitor Center, first passing by a picnic pavilion. Other than the one hill, the hike is easy and well marked.

Trailhead for hiking clockwise around the Habre de Venture grounds at Thomas Stone National Historic Site

I enjoyed my hike around the grounds of Thomas Stone National Historic Site because it added to the historical aspect of the park. When I am in a nature-based park I want to hike trails with beautiful views, but in a history-based park I want the trails to have something to do with the history of the place. This hike allowed me to see all of the historical features in the park. If you can walk two miles, I highly recommend the hike around the Habre de Venture grounds.

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