{"nrhp_refnum":"05000764","name":"Oak Hill","other_names":["Vdhr #024-0087"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"181 Oak Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cumberland","county":"Cumberland County","state":"VA","lat":37.494421997000046,"lon":-78.31331610537126,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-07-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Conservation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Oak Hill is a two-story, three-bay frame Federal-style dwelling with outbuildings and a family cemetery, located within Cumberland State Forest in Cumberland County, Virginia. It was built around 1810 by planter William Mynn Thornton.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a good, well-preserved example of Federal-style architecture reflecting the tastes of the planter class (Criterion C). It is also significant for its history as a working plantation and for its role in 1930s federal land conservation, when the land was acquired for the Cumberland Project and later passed to the state (Criterion A).","narrative":"Oak Hill is a two-story, three-bay frame house built around 1810 by planter William Mynn Thornton in what is now Cumberland State Forest, Cumberland County, Virginia. Its Federal character shows in the center-passage, single-pile plan, a seven-pane fanlight over the front door, moulded trim, carved mantels and a staircase with scroll-carved stringers. The interior remains largely intact, with only minor changes such as bathrooms and heating. A rear ell was added around 1940, and a front porch dates to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The property also includes a bank barn, a tobacco barn, a former tenant dwelling used as a granary, and a small family cemetery holding the Charles Irving Thornton tombstone. After several changes of ownership following Thornton's death in 1856, the land was bought by the federal government in 1936 as part of a conservation project, then deeded to the state in 1954. Today it is rented to state employees, and its rural, farm-like setting is retained.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1810-1955","architect_builder":"unknown","architectural_style":"Early Republic: Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Since 1954 the house has been rented to employees of the state forest or other state agencies; the cemetery is overgrown but accessible.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.980702-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/39/6803/41680339/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/05000764.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000764/e6b27bb6fa-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000764/e6b27bb6fa-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Ser Amantio di Nicolao","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oak_Hill,_Cumberland_State_Forest,_Cumberland_County,_Virginia_-_road_to_property,_house_in_trees_in_distance.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ser Amantio di Nicolao</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:Oak_Hill,_Cumberland_State_Forest,_Cumberland_County,_Virginia_-_road_to_property,_house_in_trees_in_distance.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680339","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Hill_(Cumberland,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7073556"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/cumberland-county/oak-hill-05000764/"}