{"nrhp_refnum":"04000477","name":"Clifton","other_names":["Vdhr# 249-5029"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"49 Clifton Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kimarnock","county":"Northumberland County","state":"VA","lat":37.71384802600005,"lon":-76.3679625312738,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-05-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Clifton is a two-story Georgian-style weatherboarded house with brick nogging on a 109.3-acre tract in Northumberland County, Virginia, near Kilmarnock. It was probably built in 1785 by Landon Carter II.","why_significant":"The nomination argues significance under Criterion C for its unusual late-eighteenth-century floor plan. It is described as a rare example of a four-square plan with a central chimney, combined with a lateral front passage and paired stairs. The chimney serves two formal rooms downstairs and pivots to heat four upstairs chambers.","narrative":"Clifton is an eighteenth-century house on the brow of a hill in Northumberland County, Virginia, within a 109.3-acre tract of open farmland and woods. The two-story, weatherboarded frame house with brick nogging was probably built in 1785 by Landon Carter II, on land that had belonged to Robert \"King\" Carter. The date was established through documents and tree-ring dating of framing timbers. Its main block has a central chimney and end-gable roof, with an east wing added in the early 1800s and a twentieth-century kitchen. The house is notable for its plan. A lateral entry hall has matching stairs at each end, and the central chimney pivots on the second floor to heat four bedchambers in two independent suites. This arrangement fits the long-held tradition that Clifton served as a hunting lodge. The property was listed for this rare four-square, central-chimney plan, and it has remained with descendants of the Palmer family since the 1840s.","period_of_significance":"1785","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"COLONIAL: Georgian","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still in residential use as a single dwelling; the present owners recently completed a careful restoration. The site also has three non-contributing twentieth-century outbuildings.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.037012-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/78/6822/41682278/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/04000477.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000477/45852a1d63-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000477/45852a1d63-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clifton_Avenue_terminus_in_Kilmarnock.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clifton_Avenue_terminus_in_Kilmarnock.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682278","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_(Kilmarnock,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15210936"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/northumberland-county/clifton-04000477/"}