{"nrhp_refnum":"00000194","name":"Durham Homeplace","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"1561 Watson Springs Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Watkinsville","county":"Oconee County","state":"GA","lat":33.75509230900008,"lon":-83.33296717399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-03-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural farmstead district of about 2 acres near Watkinsville in Oconee County, Georgia, centered on a log hall-parlor house built c. 1830 and enlarged c. 1900-1910, with three historic outbuildings.","why_significant":"The main house is significant under Criterion C in architecture as an outstanding example of an early 19th-century log hall-parlor house later transformed into a Georgian-plan house. Few log houses survive in Georgia, and the house shows the common pattern of small early dwellings being enlarged into more fashionable homes as families grew and gained wealth.","narrative":"Set on about two acres in rural Oconee County, this farmstead centers on a log house built around 1830 by Etheral Sorrel and bought in 1832 by Dr. Lindsey Durham, a noted herbal doctor who lived elsewhere. The one-and-one-half-story hall-parlor house has hand-hewn, half-dovetail-notched logs, stone chimneys and a full-width porch. Around 1900 to 1910, Paul Walker Durham, a carpenter and builder, added rear rooms, a central hall, a kitchen ell and a front room, turning it into a Georgian-plan cottage. A corn crib, a cook's quarters and a smokehouse survive as contributing outbuildings, while a manufactured home is noncontributing. The property was listed for architecture because the early log section remains intact and distinct from the later additions, illustrating how Georgia houses grew from plain settlement-era dwellings into larger, more fashionable homes. Farming ended in the 1950s, and fields have since reverted to woodland.","period_of_significance":"c.1830 - 1910","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Other: hall-parlor house (later Georgian cottage plan)","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The house stood vacant from 1966 to 1976, then was rehabilitated. The property is now overgrown with kudzu and bamboo, and a manufactured home serves as the primary residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.688194-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/00000194.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209196","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/oconee-county/durham-homeplace-00000194/"}