{"nrhp_refnum":"01000418","name":"Mary's Grove","other_names":["Rabb House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2121 Harper Ave., SW","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lenoir","county":"Caldwell County","state":"NC","lat":35.89846667200004,"lon":-81.56527479099998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-04-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Colonial Revival stone house with a well-house, silo and dairy, all built about 1932-1934 on a 2.231-acre remnant of a former farm at 2121 Harper Avenue SW in Lenoir, Caldwell County, North Carolina. The Lyons brothers, stonemasons from Boone, built them for Eleanor (Nellie) Miller Rabb.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the four stone buildings are the most extensive and important surviving domestic commission of the Lyons brothers, who gained local acclaim as stonemasons after working at Duke University and Duke Chapel. The buildings embody the best stone construction of the interwar period. The site also carries the name and family history of the Mary's Grove plantation.","narrative":"Mary's Grove is a group of four stone buildings in Lenoir, North Carolina: a two-story Colonial Revival house, a well-house, a silo and a dairy, all built about 1932-1934. They occupy 2.231 acres left from a fifty-six-acre farm that Eleanor Miller Rabb assembled and ran as Mary's Grove Dairy until shortly before her death in 1949. She hired the Lyons brothers of Boone, stonemasons who had worked at Duke University and Duke Chapel, to build them. The grey random-ashlar house has a two-story portico with paired Tuscan columns, and its interior retains original finishes, bathrooms and kitchen cabinetry. The name comes from Mary Perkins Miller, who received land here around 1787-1790. The property was listed for architecture because it is the most important known surviving domestic work of the Lyons brothers and shows the quality of interwar stone construction. A bypass and commercial development have since changed the surroundings, but the old grove and repeated stonework keep the feel of a country place.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1932-1934","architect_builder":"Lyons, Leslie McDonald; Lyons, Clarence Manleth; Lyons, Earl Jones (stonemasons)","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Section 6 lists the current function as vacant/not in use and commerce/professional; the significance text says it is now used as business offices of a surveying firm.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:53.525396-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/75/7193/47719375/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/01000418.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000418/7699c945e8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000418/7699c945e8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Bigdaverhuberg","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RabbDairy.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Bigdaverhuberg</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:RabbDairy.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719375","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary%27s_Grove","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18154134"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/caldwell-county/marys-grove-01000418/"}