{"nrhp_refnum":"03001425","name":"Seaton, George Lewis, House","other_names":["Dhr#100-5015-0007"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"404 S. Royal St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Alexandria (Independent City)","county":"Alexandria","state":"VA","lat":38.80281721800003,"lon":-77.04385195199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-01-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-bay, two-story, side-hall-plan brick rowhouse at 404 South Royal Street in the Hayti neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia. It was probably built between 1861 and 1866 and altered around 1900.","why_significant":"The house is tied to George Lewis Seaton, a free-born African American master carpenter, businessman and political leader who bought it in 1866 and lived there until his death in 1881. Archaeological deposits on the lot date back to about 1795 and may represent the earliest material record of free Black residents in Alexandria. The site documents the growth of the free African American community known as Hayti.","narrative":"Located at 404 South Royal Street in Alexandria, this brick rowhouse sits in the heart of Hayti, the city's second oldest African American neighborhood. It has three bays, two stories and a side-hall plan, with a red-painted pressed brick facade, segmental brick window arches, a corbelled cornice and a horse alley beside the front. Tax records suggest it was built between 1861 and 1866 and substantially modified around 1900. George Lewis Seaton, born free in Alexandria in 1822, bought the property in 1866 and lived there until 1881. He was a master carpenter, builder, grocer, property owner and Radical Republican, and he was elected the first African American member of the Virginia General Assembly from north of the Rappahannock River. Archaeological testing recovered more than 2,000 artifacts in layers reaching back to the late eighteenth century, which may be the earliest material record of free Black residents in Alexandria. The house was listed for its link to Seaton and for this archaeological evidence.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1795-1881","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Late Victorian","criteria":["A","B","D"],"status_note":"Currently a single dwelling; recently renovated, with alterations to the interior and rear sections.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.342448-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/14/6785/41678514/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/03001425.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03001425/da0ac0d6f8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03001425/da0ac0d6f8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Josh from Washington, D.C., USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SeatonHouseAlexandria.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Josh from Washington, D.C., USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SeatonHouseAlexandria.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"66000928","name":"Alexandria Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/alexandria-historic-district-66000928/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678514","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lewis_Seaton_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5541713"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/alexandria/seaton-george-lewis-house-03001425/"}