{"nrhp_refnum":"07000132","name":"Bel Aire","other_names":["002-0001"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"4710 Dickerson Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charlottesville","county":"Albemarle County","state":"VA","lat":38.16259186150003,"lon":-78.427040061062,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-03-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Bel Aire is a two-and-a-half-story Federal style brick dwelling at 4710 Dickerson Road, northwest of Charlottesville in Albemarle County, Virginia, built around 1825 by James Michie. The 15.3-acre property also includes a cemetery and several farm outbuildings.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Bel Aire as a well-preserved example of an early nineteenth-century Federal style plantation house in Albemarle County. It was built by James Michie, who assembled a plantation of about 1,291 acres, and it remained a home of the wealthy landowning Michie family. The house keeps its original plan, Federal woodwork and mantels, and iron tie rods installed against earthquake damage.","narrative":"Bel Aire is a Federal style brick house about nine miles northwest of Charlottesville, built around 1825 by James Michie on a plantation that grew to roughly 1,291 acres. It rises two and a half stories on a raised basement, with a four-bay front sheltered by a flat-roof portico on paired Tuscan columns. Inside, the plan combines features of a hall-parlor house at the front and a central passage house at the rear. Original details include Federal mantels with reeded colonettes, a quarter-landing stair with scrolled brackets, molded door surrounds and flush-paneled doors. Iron tie rods at the second-floor eaves were installed to guard against earthquake damage. A brick addition with Italianate brackets was made around 1860 or 1870, and a sunroom around 1980. The property also holds a cemetery, a garage, a chicken coop and a corn crib. Its significance rests on the architecture and on its history as the seat of the Michie family, prominent landowners in the county.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"James Michie","architectural_style":"Early Republic: Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still used as a single dwelling, with a cemetery and storage outbuildings; the form describes later additions and interior renovations.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.979096-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/73/6793/41679373/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/07000132.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000132/86b6b80608-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000132/86b6b80608-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bel_Aire,_northeast_of_Charlottesville.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bel_Aire,_northeast_of_Charlottesville.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679373","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_Aire_(Charlottesville,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712010"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/albemarle-county/bel-aire-07000132/"}