{"nrhp_refnum":"02000320","name":"Western View","other_names":["DHR File no. 032-0114"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 658","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fork Union","county":"Fluvanna County","state":"VA","lat":37.73587621650006,"lon":-78.3556529347027,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-04-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Western View is a two-part house on a wooded bluff above the James River near Fork Union, Fluvanna County, Virginia. A one-and-one-half-story frame section dates to about 1790, and a two-story brick Greek Revival wing was added in 1824.","why_significant":"The nomination argues significance under Criterion C for architecture. It preserves an unaltered late 18th-century hall-parlor-plan house alongside a brick Greek Revival wing, one of only a handful of buildings in that style in Fluvanna County. The way the expansion is expressed in massing and detail is described as exceptional.","narrative":"Western View sits on a wooded bluff above the James River in Fluvanna County, Virginia, with its main entrance facing west toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. The house grew in two stages. A frame hall-parlor-plan dwelling of about 1790 has beaded weatherboards, a slate roof and a large double-ramped brick chimney. In 1824 Catherine Johnson, a widowed farmer and river freight operator, added a two-story brick wing with Greek Revival details, including pedimented gable ends, a Doric cornice with mutules and reeded door trim. Later owners included William McCoy, a formerly enslaved man who became a merchant near Middleton Mills. The house has stood empty since the 1930s and has never been modernized, though recent work has stabilized its foundation and roof. Its early woodwork and chimney are finer than those of comparable early Fluvanna houses, and the brick wing is one of few Greek Revival buildings in the county. A family cemetery and kitchen ruins remain on the property.","period_of_significance":"circa 1790 -- 1824","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"No Style; Greek Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The house has been uninhabited since the 1930s and was never given electricity or plumbing. Openings are boarded, and the owners have stabilized the foundation, repaired the roof and chimneys, and repointed the brick.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.189286-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/18/6807/41680718/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/02000320.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000320/d75b9a6c94-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000320/d75b9a6c94-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_View_estate_entrance.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_View_estate_entrance.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680718","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_View","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713515"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/fluvanna-county/western-view-02000320/"}