{"nrhp_refnum":"01000146","name":"Otterburn","other_names":["DHR File No. 009-0024"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Big Island Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bedford","county":"Bedford (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.368280640500046,"lon":-79.49707476374087,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-02-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Otterburn is a brick plantation house about two miles north of Bedford, Bedford County, Virginia, first built in 1828 for Benjamin and Sally Donald and rebuilt by 1843 after a fire, with a wash house, a garden and a 1950s dormitory on the remaining acreage.","why_significant":"The nomination links the house to Benjamin A. Donald, a plantation and gristmill owner who served as a county justice from 1832 and as Bedford County's first elected presiding justice. It also treats the house as a leading Virginia example of the shift from Early Classical Revival to Greek Revival style, with detailing taken from Asher Benjamin's pattern books.","narrative":"Otterburn is a hilltop brick house on Big Island Highway north of Bedford, Virginia, once the center of a plantation that reached over 2,800 acres along Little Otter Creek. Benjamin and Sally Donald built the first house in 1828. A fire gutted it in 1841, and by 1843 it had been rebuilt within the surviving walls. The rebuilt house has a transverse-hall plan, a main floor raised over a basement, a full-length front porch, curved granite stairs and a cross-gabled roof with pedimented ends. Its doorways, windows and mantels copy designs from Asher Benjamin's pattern books. The property is also tied to Benjamin Donald, who held county offices for more than forty years and was the county's first elected presiding justice. About sixteen acres remain, with old boxwood gardens laid out as a maze, a mid-nineteenth-century wash house and a 1950s dormitory. The house is currently vacant.","period_of_significance":"1828-1871","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Early Classical Revival/Greek Revival","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Listed under current function as vacant; the dormitory on the grounds is used as an adult care residence, and repairs are under way to preserve the house until a full restoration or rehabilitation.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:59.968154-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/6797/41679756/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/01000146.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000146/a4ad8dc419-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000146/a4ad8dc419-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otterburn_near_Bedford,_from_the_north.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otterburn_near_Bedford,_from_the_north.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679756","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otterburn_(Bedford,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7109430"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/bedford/otterburn-01000146/"}