{"nrhp_refnum":"01000691","name":"James City Historic District","other_names":["056-5011"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"US 29","address_restricted":false,"city":"Madison","county":"Madison County","state":"VA","lat":38.43506791500005,"lon":-78.13274282043636,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-07-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural historic district of fourteen wooden commercial, residential and agricultural buildings on about 280 acres along U.S. Route 29 near the Madison/Culpeper County line in Madison County, Virginia, dating from the late 1700s to the 1940s.","why_significant":"The nomination presents James City as a time capsule of late-18th-, 19th- and early-20th-century domestic, commercial and agricultural buildings. It grew along the old Fredericksburg Road, a stagecoach route, and included a tavern, stores and a blacksmith shop. It became the second post office in Madison County in 1810, and in 1822 Daniel James obtained a license to operate a business there.","narrative":"James City is a cluster of fourteen wooden buildings spread across roughly 280 acres beside U.S. Route 29 on the Madison and Culpeper county line in Virginia. Commercial buildings include two stores, a tavern and a blacksmith shop, and they face two houses across a farm lane that was once the Fredericksburg Road, a main route into Madison County and a stagecoach line. The oldest portion, a house and kitchen from about 1796, was later combined with a tavern built before 1817 and a store into one long structure. An 1870 I-house, a feed store and a former school house stand on the opposite side, and barns, corncribs and poultry houses dot the fields. The district was listed for its architecture and its role in local commerce. James City received Madison County's second post office in 1810, and Daniel James obtained a license in 1822. Most buildings keep their basic integrity, though several are deteriorating and only one house is occupied.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1796 to 1940s","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Only one residence is occupied; some buildings are in disrepair and several agricultural buildings are used minimally or not at all.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:01.19781-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/6818/41681845/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/01000691.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000691/74a07a867e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01000691/74a07a867e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Graham, William E.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Environmental_view_of_the_James_City_Historic_District,_looking_to_the_north_elevation_of_the_Feed_Store_and_School_-_Feed_Store-School,_Route_29_and_Route_631,_Madison,_Madison_County,_HABS_VA-1417-1.tif\" rel=\"noopener\">Graham, William E.</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Environmental_view_of_the_James_City_Historic_District,_looking_to_the_north_elevation_of_the_Feed_Store_and_School_-_Feed_Store-School,_Route_29_and_Route_631,_Madison,_Madison_County,_HABS_VA-1417-1.tif"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681845","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_City_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712617"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/madison-county/james-city-historic-district-01000691/"}