{"nrhp_refnum":"03000571","name":"Bay Point Farm","other_names":["Bay Point Dairy Farm","Obici House","Sleepy Hole Golf Course"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1400 Sleepy Hole Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"SUffolk","county":"Suffolk","state":"VA","lat":36.844755924000026,"lon":-76.51640320074205,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-06-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 2-story Italian Renaissance-style wood-frame house with outbuildings on a 263-acre former dairy farm overlooking the Nansemond River at 1400 Sleepy Hole Road, Suffolk, Virginia. It was built in 1925 around an 1870 farmhouse that was moved and enlarged.","why_significant":"The property was the home of Amedeo Obici, founder of the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company, a major peanut snack food manufacturer. It is also significant for its Italian Renaissance design, which Obici modeled on villas he knew in his native Italy.","narrative":"Bay Point Farm is an Italian Renaissance-style house on a bluff above the Nansemond River in Suffolk, Virginia. Amedeo Obici, the Italian immigrant who founded the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company, bought the farm in 1924. In 1925 he had the existing 1870 farmhouse moved to the bluff and used it as the core of a new home, adding two hipped-roof blocks to the north and south. The two-story frame house has weatherboard siding, a clay tile roof, Ionic columns, Palladian-style windows, and parquet floors. A two-story garage with servants' quarters, dairy outbuildings, a silo, and a brick entrance gate with cast-concrete lions survive. Obici modeled the house on villas he remembered from Italy and furnished it with Italian art. He also kept a prized Guernsey herd here, and he lived at the farm until his death in 1947. In the 1970s the grounds became a golf course and the house a reception center.","period_of_significance":"1924-1947","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals: Italian Renaissance","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Owned by the City of Suffolk, which intends to restore it; the house has been used as a reception center and the grounds as the Sleepy Hole Golf Course since the 1970s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.896995-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/61/6838/41683861/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/03000571.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000571/5515c11860-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000571/5515c11860-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Original: This file comes from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). These are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consist of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing. Derivation: Generic1139","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obici_House_cover_sheet.png\" rel=\"noopener\">Original: This file comes from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) or Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). These are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consist of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing. Derivation: Generic1139</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Obici_House_cover_sheet.png"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683861","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Point_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16822778"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/suffolk/bay-point-farm-03000571/"}