{"nrhp_refnum":"02000590","name":"Locust Hill","other_names":["VDHR file no. 56-5012"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of US 15, VA 634, and VA 614","address_restricted":false,"city":"Locust Dale","county":"Madison County","state":"VA","lat":38.33751061900006,"lon":-78.1258145248267,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-05-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Education"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Locust Hill is a Federal-Greek Revival frame house with domestic outbuildings, an 1897 schoolhouse, and an across-the-road 1880s store and post office, on about thirty acres at Locust Dale, Madison County, Virginia. The original house dates to 1834 and was enlarged about 1849.","why_significant":"The house is a well-preserved example of Federal-Greek Revival architecture with intact mantels and graining. The complex also reflects local education, through Willis's School and the Locust Dale Academy connection, and local commerce, through the Willis family store and post office. The form describes the careers of Larkin and Mary Lucy Willis as reflecting the shift from private academies to public schools.","narrative":"Locust Hill is a farm complex at Locust Dale in eastern Madison County, Virginia. Its two-story frame house began in 1834 as a side-passage-plan dwelling and was enlarged about 1849 with a two-tier Doric front porch. Inside, the house keeps its Federal and Greek Revival mantels, six-panel doors and grained woodwork in the center passage. Around 1900 a bathroom tower, summer kitchen and brick greenhouse wing were added. Nearby stand a smokehouse, a brick dairy and Willis's School, a one-room frame schoolhouse built in 1897 by Larkin Willis II, where his daughter Mary Lucy taught. Across US 15 is the Locust Dale Store and Post Office, dating to the 1880s, with its original shelving, counters and pressed-metal walls and ceiling, plus a 1934 fertilizer house. The property matters for its architecture and for what it shows about rural education and commerce in the area. Farmland and historic farms still surround it.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal; Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good integrity but deteriorating from deferred maintenance; a rehabilitation plan was being prepared, and the house and store retain historic features.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.470483-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/49/6818/41681849/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/02000590.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000590/abecfb1ec2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02000590/abecfb1ec2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Gauemj2017","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Locust_Hill_Madison_VA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Gauemj2017</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Locust_Hill_Madison_VA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681849","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locust_Hill_(Locust_Dale,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712731"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/madison-county/locust-hill-02000590/"}