The Johnston County Heritage Center's exhibits are housed in the Holding-Richardson Exhibit Hall on the first floor or in the Visitors Bureau Gallery on the third floor. The building is open FREE OF CHARGE 9:00-5:00 Monday-Saturday (except holidays observed by the County of Johnston). While there's no charge for admission to any part of the Johnston County Heritage Center, voluntary donations are always welcome!

Holding-Richardson Exhibit Hall (first floor)

• COMING SOON: 100 years of 4-H --- An exhibit of photographs and artifacts telling the story of Johnston County's 4-H program, assembled largely from memorabilia provided by local 4-H alumni....
  
  

• History from an old town dump--- One man's collection of artifacts retrieved from Smithfield's pre-1950 garbage and trash dump that was recently unearthed because of a construction project. His findings include drink bottles with obscure as well as familiar brands, all sorts of medicine and cosmetic jars from the early 20th Century, and china fragments from Smithfield homes and businesses six decades and more ago.
  
  

• Fossils from our prehistoric ocean --- An amazing collection of shark's teeth, whale bones, and petrified shellfish unearthed along a tributary of Johnston County's Black Creek provide evidence that the ocean reached this far inland millions of years ago. Marvin E. Underwood discovered the fossils, including dinosaur parts, on his family's land north of Benson and called in professional geologists to help identify the pieces. He has brought a sampling to the Heritage Center for display.
  
  

 

• Johnston County's colonial history --- On display are some of the Heritage Center's most valuable artifacts: an original copy of explorer John Lawson's A New Voyage To Carolina, published in 1711; and an original oil painting that depicts Smith's Ferry on the Neuse River at the place that became the Town of Smithfield in 1777.
  
  
  
  
  
• The story of First Citizens Bank --- Built in 1913 for the Bank of Smithfield, the renovated building that houses the Johnston County Heritage Center served for many years as the home office of First Citizens Bank and Trust Company (the bank's headquarters are now in Raleigh). Prior to the Heritage Center's opening in April 2000, First Citizens donated the building to the County of Johnston. In celebration of First Citizens' 103rd anniversary on March 1, 2001, a permanent exhibit was unveiled on the Heritage Center's first floor that tells the story of the bank's founding and subsequent nurturing by Smithfield's Holding family. The exhibit is centered around the bank's vault door, which was left in place as the entrance to the Heritage Center's elevator vestibule.
  
  

Visitors Bureau Gallery (third floor)

• Margaret Lee and the Johnston County Room --- A tribute to the lady who started the Heritage Center's basic collections of local history and genealogy 40 years ago in the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield. Mrs. Lee continued to serve the Heritage Center as curator emeritus until a few days before her death, at age 96, on February 12, 2007.

   

• The infamous 'Catch-Me-Eye' explosion --- Original newspaper front pages about the March 1942 munitions-truck explosion near Selma (displayed in vestibule outside the Audiovisual Room). We also hold in our archives a collection of photos, including the one below, showing the blast's devastation. NEWLY ACQUIRED: We now have a DVD copy of a "home movie" showing the explosion's destruction (you may view it in the Audiovisual Room).