{"nrhp_refnum":"04000942","name":"Fountain, The","other_names":["Walnut Fountain"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1677 NC 268","address_restricted":false,"city":"Yadkin Valley","county":"Caldwell County","state":"NC","lat":35.999390592000054,"lon":-81.53836912499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-09-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History","Education","Politics/Government","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story-with-attic frame plantation house in Yadkin Valley (Happy Valley), Caldwell County, North Carolina, said to have been built in 1807 by William Davenport, with a ca. 1865-1870 kitchen and dining room ell and a ca. 1882-1885 Victorian remodeling.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it one of the two oldest known houses in Caldwell County and its Happy Valley, home to five generations of the Davenport-Jones family from 1807 to 1985. It is tied to William Davenport, a prominent political and civic leader and founder of Davenport College. Its layered Federal, Greek Revival and Queen Anne-influenced fabric, including a rare surviving basement kitchen, adds architectural importance.","narrative":"Built as the seat of a 1,350-acre plantation above the Yadkin River, this frame house in Caldwell County's Happy Valley is said to date to 1807, when William Davenport built the two-story main block. Davenport served in both houses of the state legislature, helped survey the North Carolina-Tennessee boundary, helped lay out the town of Lenoir, and was a founder of Davenport College. His descendants, the Davenport-Jones family, lived here for five generations, until 1985. After the Civil War a kitchen and dining room ell was added and the main rooms were refitted in Greek Revival style. In the 1880s the house received Victorian updates, including a five-sided bay, a bracketed porch and window hoods. Inside, the house keeps Georgian woodwork, an unusual enclosed corkscrew attic stair and a basement kitchen, one of few such nineteenth-century kitchens left in western North Carolina. A brick well house and dairy also survives on the lot. The house is recognized for its architecture, its builder and its place in local settlement and social history.","period_of_significance":"1807-ca. 1870","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Federal, Greek Revival, Queen Anne","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Used as a single dwelling; described as somewhat deteriorated in appearance, with aluminum siding over the weatherboards and a deteriorated well house.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:54.406152-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/93/7193/47719393/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/04000942.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000942/6722033b5d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000942/6722033b5d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Eddyz9","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Fountain--October_2024.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Eddyz9</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:The_Fountain--October_2024.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719393","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountain_(Yadkin_Valley,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7734964"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/caldwell-county/fountain-the-04000942/"}