{"nrhp_refnum":"05000134","name":"Point of Rocks","other_names":["020-0123"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1005 Point of Rocks Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chester","county":"Chesterfield County","state":"VA","lat":37.321845475500055,"lon":-77.33788221840334,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-03-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story Greek Revival frame dwelling built about 1840 by the Reverend John Alexander Strachan near Chester in Chesterfield County, Virginia, on a bluff above the Appomattox River. The 10-acre property also includes a 1938 garage and the rock cliffs for which it is named.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is an unusual Greek Revival type in Chesterfield County, a one-story dwelling on a stone foundation without a raised basement, and it retains good integrity. The property was also a Union observation point, headquarters and field hospital in 1864 during the Bermuda Hundred campaign, and later a freedmen's village.","narrative":"Point of Rocks is a one-story, three-bay Greek Revival house built around 1840 by the Reverend John Alexander Strachan on a 60-foot sandstone bluff above the Appomattox River in Chesterfield County. It has weatherboard siding, a low hipped standing-seam metal roof, a stuccoed stone foundation, and a small tetrastyle porch with square Greek posts. A 1938 garage and the rock cliffs are also counted as contributing resources. The house is considered unusual locally because it lacks the raised basement typical of plantation houses of its period. The elevated site was used as a Confederate signal station and, in 1864, as a Union observation point, headquarters and field hospital during the Bermuda Hundred campaign, with the house serving as quarters for surgeons. After the war, the land was used as a freedmen's village, and the Strachan family later returned. Architecture and military history underpin its significance.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1840-1938","architect_builder":"Strachan, John Alexander","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a single dwelling, with the garage and rock cliffs as secondary and natural features; the descendants of the Strachan family still own it.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.914004-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/6801/41680160/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/05000134.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000134/aaee6bff7c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000134/aaee6bff7c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Point_of_Rocks_driveway.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Point_of_Rocks_driveway.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680160","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_Rocks_(Chester,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713081"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/chesterfield-county/point-of-rocks-05000134/"}