{"nrhp_refnum":"00000065","name":"Downtown Chilhowie Historic District","other_names":["189-0001"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Main St. S. Whitetop Rd. and Lee Hwy.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chilhowie","county":"Smyth County","state":"VA","lat":36.79831214500007,"lon":-81.68124083799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-02-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small commercial historic district in downtown Chilhowie, Smyth County, Virginia, along Main Street, Lee Highway and South Whitetop Road. It holds eleven contributing buildings and one noncontributing building, mostly brick commercial structures built between about 1909 and 1947.","why_significant":"The district is argued to be significant under Criteria A and C as the surviving historic commercial center of a town that grew from a railroad depot village, Greever's Switch, into a small regional trade center. The brick commercial buildings show early twentieth-century design, with the National Bank of Chilhowie as the most architecturally sophisticated. The district also reflects the rebuilding after the 1909 fire and later storefront modernization.","narrative":"Downtown Chilhowie is a compact commercial district in Smyth County, Virginia, centered on Main Street with additional buildings on Lee Highway and South Whitetop Road. It includes eleven contributing buildings, mostly brick, and one noncontributing office building from about 1960. The town began as Greever's Switch, a railroad village, and grew with the Norfolk & Western Railway, a paving brick plant, farm supply businesses and a local bank. After a fire in 1909 destroyed the original commercial block, stores were rebuilt facing the former alley, which became Main Street. Notable buildings include the 1909 National Bank of Chilhowie, with Beaux Arts influenced classical detailing, the 1916 Chilhowie Drug Company, and the Chilhowie Hardware building with its Luxfer glass transom. A 1947 Cape Cod style restaurant on Lee Highway is also included. The district is recognized for its commercial history and early twentieth-century architecture, with a period of significance from 1900 to 1949 and a significant date of 1913, the year of the town's incorporation.","period_of_significance":"1900-1949","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century: Beaux Arts","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The form lists the current function as commerce/business and also as vacant/not in use. It says owners have struggled to find appropriate uses for the buildings since Interstate 81 was built.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:01.15176-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/6836/41683656/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/00000065.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000065/8cd64f55bd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000065/8cd64f55bd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"James Shelton32","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chilhowie_Historic_District.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">James Shelton32</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chilhowie_Historic_District.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683656","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Chilhowie_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15214947"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/smyth-county/downtown-chilhowie-historic-district-00000065/"}