{"nrhp_refnum":"07000879","name":"Rock Cliff Farm","other_names":["Wells, B.W. Farm"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"West end of Bent Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Wake Forest","county":"Wake County","state":"NC","lat":36.00141454750005,"lon":-78.6461220248685,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-08-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Conservation","Science","Literature"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Rock Cliff Farm is a former small subsistence farm and retirement home on a peninsula of the Neuse River in northern Wake County, North Carolina, near Wake Forest, now surrounded largely by Falls Lake. The nomination covers the residual 83.442-acre tract with its house grounds, log meathouse, Ray-Wells house and related buildings.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is significant for its association with Dr. Bertram Whittier Wells, a botanist at North Carolina State College who wrote The Natural Gardens of North Carolina and lived on the farm from 1954 until his death in 1978. The farm's natural setting, cliffs and plant life shaped his retirement and his later interest in the state's landscape. The nomination also describes the farm's earlier agricultural history under the Lowery-Ray family.","narrative":"Rock Cliff Farm occupies a peninsula of the Neuse River in northern Wake County, near Wake Forest. The 144.20-acre farm was a small subsistence holding worked by the Lowery-Ray family from about 1881 until 1944, when Charles J. Ray's estate was sold. Botanist Bertram Whittier Wells bought the property in December 1950 and made it his home from 1954 until his death in 1978. He repaired the farmhouse, built a studio with a stone fireplace, constructed a stone wall, and laid out about ten miles of nature trails. The property is significant for its association with Wells, who taught botany at North Carolina State College from 1919 and wrote The Natural Gardens of North Carolina, published in 1932. The farm's river cliffs, known as Zeagle's Rock, and its plant life drew him there. Creation of Falls Lake in the 1980s flooded much of the original acreage.","period_of_significance":"1950-1978","architect_builder":"Wells, Bertram Whittier--builder","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["B"],"status_note":"Residual tract surviving above the waters of Falls Lake; buildings maintained with support of the B. W. Wells Association.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.167181-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/39/7226/47722639/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/07000879.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722639","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Cliff_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24436299"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wake-county/rock-cliff-farm-07000879/"}