{"nrhp_refnum":"07000391","name":"Speed the Plough","other_names":["Dhr#005-0040"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"389 Fair Lea Ln.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Monroe","county":"Amherst County","state":"VA","lat":37.53499823100003,"lon":-79.19469397656758,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-04-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Speed the Plough is an almost-300-acre farm near Elon and Monroe in Amherst County, Virginia, centered on a circa 1850 Greek Revival brick house built by William A. Dearing, with 1930s Tudor Revival fieldstone buildings added later.","why_significant":"The farm's buildings and landscape document changes in Virginia agriculture from the late eighteenth century to the twenty-first, from tobacco and grain to orchards and pasture. It also preserves an antebellum house, Dearing and African-American cemeteries, and a 1930s estate built by Rowland Lea and partner George C. Stevens.","narrative":"Speed the Plough is a nearly 300-acre farm in Amherst County, Virginia, whose centerpiece is a two-story brick house built around 1850 by William Alexander Dearing in the Greek Revival style. Dearing grew tobacco and grain and held fourteen enslaved people in 1860. After his death in a feud, his family kept the land until 1915, when a fruit company planted orchards. Rowland Lea bought the farm in 1927, remodeled the house, and added bathrooms and a north wing. Around 1933 his partner George C. Stevens financed a barn, a rock wall, a garage and apartment, a chicken house, and the Rock Cottage, a fieldstone Tudor Revival retreat modeled on an English hunting lodge. The grounds also include a springhouse, the Dearing family cemetery, an adjoining African-American cemetery, ponds, and possible archaeological sites. Together these resources trace the farm's shift from tobacco to orchards to pasture across more than two centuries.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William Alexander Dearing (main house, c. 1850); unknown New York architect and local mason Samuel Belk (Rock Cottage, c. 1933)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival (main house); Tudor Revival (additional structures)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Most buildings and farm structures remain and are in use, with some converted to housing; the land is now cattle pasture and the former orchards are gone.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.453483-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/31/6795/41679531/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/07000391.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000391/0a05c2df8c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000391/0a05c2df8c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speed_the_Plough_in_Amherst_County.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speed_the_Plough_in_Amherst_County.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679531","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_the_Plough_(Monroe,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7575616"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/amherst-county/speed-the-plough-07000391/"}