Exchange Place Living History Farm

Exchange Place on Orebank Road in Kingsport is a non-profit volunteer run Living History Farm that seeks to preserve and protect the history and heritage of an East Tennessee farmstead.

Thousands of people visit the site each year for the Festivals, school programs, workshops, tours and other special events.  A calendar of events may be found on the Exchange Place website.



Four new lambs and eight new calves have joined the Exchange Place family. Stop by and get acquainted!



Master Gardeners contribute to Exchange Place in a variety of ways. 

Some Master Gardeners work as the maintenance crew, keeping the lawns cut and maintaining buildings and fences.   

Earl Hockin is the project leader for the gardens maintained by Master Gardeners including a Demonstration Vegetable garden in which heirloom and hybrid varieties are grown in raised beds. 

The purpose of this garden is to assist people learning about vegetable gardening throughout the year by using row covers, and varieties appropriate for both cool season and warm season growing. 

We demonstrate how vining vegetables are best grown vertically.  

Among the vegetables we grow are a minimum of 10 different varieties of tomatoes, sweet potatoes, 4 or more varieties of beans, southern peas, Irish Potatoes, carrots, varieties of beets, peanuts, various summer and winter squash, spinach, parsnips, several varieties of peppers and several different herbs.   

Each year we grow a few unusual vegetables including Yard Long Beans, Bok Choi, Napa Cabbage, a herb called Papalo, Mad Hatter Peppers.

We also maintain a Pollinator garden featuring a variety of flowering plants that are especially attractive to a wide variety of pollinators.

Additionally we have a small garden area that focuses on native plants for which we could use some interested volunteers.

Master Gardeners assist in planning and staffing the Spring Garden Fair, Farmfest and the Fall Folk Arts Festival. Garden tours, children’s activities and workshops are among other activities performed by Master Gardeners.   

They also do tree identification, adoption of areas, and research of heirloom plantings.    

Any Master Gardener wishing to work in our gardens or with the maintenance crew should contact Earl via email. (ehockin@yahoo.com)