{"nrhp_refnum":"00000842","name":"Railway Clerks' Mountain House","other_names":["Mountain Home","Clerks' Mountain Home"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"US 176, 0.6 mi. Se of jct. with Ozone Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Saluda","county":"Polk County","state":"NC","lat":35.23198324550006,"lon":-82.33559270286759,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-07-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame guest lodge and its three associated cottages on a twelve-acre wooded tract southeast of Saluda, Polk County, North Carolina, now known as the Orchard Inn. The main house was built ca. 1926 by the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks of the Southern Railway System as a mountain retreat.","why_significant":"The house is a loose combination of Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles and retains its original interior floor plan and much of its plaster, hardwood and simple woodwork. The nomination marks Criterion A for entertainment/recreation and Criterion C for architecture, and the period of significance runs from ca. 1926 to 1950.","narrative":"Built around 1926 by the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks of the Southern Railway System as a mountain retreat for its members, the two-story frame house sits on a wooded twelve-acre tract about one and one-quarter miles southeast of Saluda. Its hip-roofed porch runs the full width of the front, supported by slender Tuscan columns with an X-pattern balustrade. The house blends Colonial Revival and Craftsman features, including exposed rafter ends on the original main eaves and German siding below the porch. Inside, the original floor plan survives, centred on a living room of about forty feet square with a large stone fireplace. The house was designed as a guest lodge, with ten bedrooms planned upstairs and a basement dining room seating thirty-six. Three cottages behind it, built around the same time, were also used as accommodation. The property is listed for its association with the organization's recreational use and for its architectural character.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1926-1950","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Loose combination of Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Now operated as the Orchard Inn with guest cottages and a dining room; the basement is used for laundry and storage.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.398058-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/74/7218/47721874/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/00000842.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000842/432f15baa6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000842/432f15baa6-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orchard_Inn.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</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:Orchard_Inn.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721874","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_Clerks%27_Mountain_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19987730"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/polk-county/railway-clerks-mountain-house-00000842/"}