{"nrhp_refnum":"07000825","name":"Spring Bank","other_names":["Ravenscroft","Magnolia Grove","Vdhr #055-0017"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1070 Courthouse Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lunenburg Courthouse","county":"Lunenburg County","state":"VA","lat":36.86776709250006,"lon":-78.408658722077,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-08-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Spring Bank is a Late Georgian-style frame plantation house with associated outbuildings, cemeteries and a dam, on about 150 acres along Courthouse Road (State Route 49) in Lunenburg County, Virginia. The house was built in 1793 by John Stark Ravenscroft and his wife, Anne Spotswood Burwell.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is significant for its association with Bishop John Stark Ravenscroft, the first Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, and with the Burwell and Hepburn families. It also cites the house as a well-preserved example of Late Georgian architecture with a five-part Palladian plan, built by local craftsmen Jacob Shelor and John Inge. The surviving dependencies and cemeteries reflect the property's agricultural history, including its use of enslaved labor.","narrative":"Spring Bank is a plantation property in southwestern Lunenburg County, Virginia, centered on a two-story Late Georgian frame house completed in 1793. John Stark Ravenscroft, later the first Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina, built it with his wife, Anne Spotswood Burwell, on a tract sold to him by her father. The house follows a five-part Palladian plan, with a three-bay central block, hip-roofed wings and shed-roofed end wings, set on a raised ashlar foundation. Local craftsmen Jacob Shelor, a stone mason, and John Inge, a carpenter, built it. Interior woodwork includes wainscoting, dentiled cornices and carved mantels. The property holds twelve contributing resources: a smokehouse, a log slave quarter, a tobacco barn, ruins of a kitchen and laundry, an ice house and a spring house, three cemeteries and a stone dam. Ravenscroft's ward Ebenezer Hepburn and his family later owned the plantation until 1889, and the property is significant for religion, agriculture and architecture.","period_of_significance":"1746 - 1889","architect_builder":"Jacob Shelor, John Inge","architectural_style":"Colonial: Georgian (Late Georgian); Other: Vernacular","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"The main house is in good condition and still used as a single dwelling. Several dependencies are ruinous, and a hay barn was destroyed in Hurricane Isabel.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.560791-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/6817/41681711/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/07000825.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000825/2ec3d46b91-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000825/2ec3d46b91-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spring_Bank_from_State_Route_49.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spring_Bank_from_State_Route_49.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681711","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Bank_(Lunenburg_Courthouse,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713233"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/lunenburg-county/spring-bank-07000825/"}