{"nrhp_refnum":"05001619","name":"Mansion House","other_names":["045-0004","44hd0068"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 645, 161 Mansion House Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"McDowell","county":"Highland County","state":"VA","lat":38.33667800500007,"lon":-79.49156028499993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2006-01-31","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Transportation","Military","Art"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An L-shaped, two-story, gable-roofed brick dwelling in McDowell, Highland County, Virginia, built in 1851 as the home of George Washington Hull. It stands on a 1.052-acre lot along the old Staunton to Parkersburg Turnpike.","why_significant":"The house is a classic Greek Revival building tied to Highland County's slaveholding elite and to Hull, the county's delegate to the 1861 Virginia secession convention. It served as a Civil War hospital around the Battle of McDowell in May 1862 and later as a hotel on the turnpike, helping start local tourism. It also holds the only known wall paintings by local artist Robert F. Gillett.","narrative":"Built in 1851 in McDowell, Virginia, the Mansion House is a two-story, L-shaped Greek Revival brick dwelling along the old Staunton to Parkersburg Turnpike. George Washington Hull, a merchant and landowner who represented Highland County at the 1861 Virginia State Convention, built it as his home. Federal soldiers used the house as a hospital during the Battle of McDowell on May 8, 1862. From 1886 until 1930 the Bradshaw family ran it as a hotel serving turnpike travelers and summer visitors, and it is the only surviving pre-1900 hotel building in the county. The interior keeps walnut woodwork, heart pine floors and brick fireplaces. Restoration work uncovered comb-grained and shaded wall panels and a small lake mural signed by local artist Robert F. Gillett, the only known example of his wall painting. The Highland Historical Society now operates the building as a museum, with a frame shed and two archaeological sites also on the lot.","period_of_significance":"1851 to 1955","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid 19th Century: Greek Revival","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Now a museum owned by the Highland Historical Society, which is restoring the house and its painted wall treatments.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.870052-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/6812/41681299/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/05001619.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001619/4776e9fa82-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001619/4776e9fa82-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Eric Schena","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McDowell_-_Mansion_Hous_(G_W_Hull_House)_now_the_Highland_County_Museum.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Eric Schena</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McDowell_-_Mansion_Hous_(G_W_Hull_House)_now_the_Highland_County_Museum.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681299","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansion_House_(McDowell,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712777"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/highland-county/mansion-house-05001619/"}