{"nrhp_refnum":"01001111","name":"Brombacher, Max and Claire, House","other_names":["Hemlock Hill"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"571 E. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brevard","county":"Transylvania County","state":"NC","lat":35.22524173000005,"lon":-82.72838082699997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2001-10-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story rustic stone house at 571 East Main Street in Brevard, Transylvania County, North Carolina, built in 1939-40 as a summer residence for Max and Claire Brombacher, with a basement garage, a great-room wing, and two noncontributing outbuildings.","why_significant":"The house is an excellent example of the small group of stone structures built in Transylvania County between 1915 and 1943. It is attributed to the Wright brothers, local stonemasons, but its dark, jagged, vertically stacked stone with little visible mortar departs from their usual technique. The stonework was apparently inspired by the Grove Park Inn in Asheville and reflects the rustic, Arts and Crafts-influenced character of Western North Carolina architecture.","narrative":"Built in 1939-40 on a wooded, sloping lot at 571 East Main Street in Brevard, this one-story rustic house was a summer home for Max and Claire Brombacher of West Palm Beach, Florida. Its walls are dark, jagged local stone stacked vertically, with almost no mortar showing and no square corners. Claire Brombacher reportedly had the masons tear down their first attempt because she wanted the house to look as though it grew from the ground, citing the Grove Park Inn as a model. The work is attributed to the Wright brothers, local stonemasons, though this style differs from their conventional technique. Inside are knotty pine walls, hammered Arts and Crafts hardware, a split-log mantel, and a north wing resembling a great hall. The porch has locust pole beams and pine decking. The house is recognized for its distinctive stone construction among Transylvania County's interwar stone buildings. A cottage and a shed on the lot are noncontributing.","period_of_significance":"1940","architect_builder":"Wright, William Benjamin; Wright, James Robert; Wright, Joseph Few (stonemasons)","architectural_style":"Other: Rustic","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The current owners are restoring the house; the form lists current function as work in progress.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:52.845223-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/59/7223/47722359/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/01001111.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001111/1fbf0a400d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/01001111/1fbf0a400d-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Max_and_Claire_Brombacher_House_(Hemlock_Hill),_Brevard,_NC_(31728055947).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Warren LeMay from Cincinnati, OH, United States</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Max_and_Claire_Brombacher_House_(Hemlock_Hill),_Brevard,_NC_(31728055947).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"09000638","name":"East Main Street Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/east-main-street-historic-district-09000638/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722359","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_and_Claire_Brombacher_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20708547"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/transylvania-county/brombacher-max-and-claire-house-01001111/"}