{"nrhp_refnum":"01000592","name":"Harmony Hill Dairy House","other_names":["General William Lytle Dairy House","Cle-638-8"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"299 S. Third St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Williamsburg","county":"Clermont County","state":"OH","lat":39.04965555100006,"lon":-84.05856686399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-05-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-story limestone dairy (milk) house at 299 South Third Street in Williamsburg, Clermont County, Ohio, built c. 1800 on General William Lytle's Harmony Hill farm. The nominated property also includes an original stone-lined well.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the dairy house is an early and rare survivor of settlement-era architecture and is credited as the oldest surviving building in Clermont County and in Williamsburg. It is the only surviving building from Harmony Hill, home of William Lytle, founder of Williamsburg and called the 'father of Clermont County.' It represents the exploration and settlement of the Virginia Military District.","narrative":"Built around 1800, this tiny limestone dairy house sits on a low hill in Williamsburg, Ohio, about three blocks south of the town square. It measures just over ten feet on each side, with a pyramidal wood-shake roof, rubble limestone walls, a single west doorway and a stone slab floor. Beside it is a stone-lined well dating to the same years. The building was part of Harmony Hill, the home farm of General William Lytle, a surveyor and explorer who founded Williamsburg. His house and a government land office on the farm are gone, leaving the dairy as the only surviving structure. The stonemason John Charles is credited with building it. After decades of neglect, the roof collapsed in 1997, and restoration began the next year, using old photographs and drawings to replace missing parts. It is listed as the oldest surviving building in Clermont County and a rare example of early settlement architecture, likely reflecting a mid-Atlantic building type.","period_of_significance":"c. 1800-1809","architect_builder":"Charles, John","architectural_style":"no style","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Restored beginning in 1998 after the roof collapsed and walls partly fell in 1997; some reconstruction was needed. It is now part of a small historical museum complex.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:07.836295-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/01000592.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000592/4275ceb114-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000592/4275ceb114-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Aesopposea","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HarmonyHillHouse.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Aesopposea</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:HarmonyHillHouse.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71987154","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137613521"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/clermont-county/harmony-hill-dairy-house-01000592/"}