{"nrhp_refnum":"09000462","name":"Douglass, George, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"19 Old Philadelphia Pike","address_restricted":false,"city":"Amity Township","county":"Berks County","state":"PA","lat":40.25642097400004,"lon":-75.72574325299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-06-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story stone dwelling and store building on the southern edge of Douglassville in Amity Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, with a one-story east wing and a stone rear porch. The original block was built in 1763 for merchant George Douglass I.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that the house is a full-scale example of Georgian domestic architecture with much of its original detail intact. It also presents the attached two-story store wing as a comparatively early surviving store building in southeastern Pennsylvania, and it ties the property to the Douglass family's local business and civic roles.","narrative":"Built in 1763 for George Douglass I, a rural merchant, this stone dwelling on the southern edge of Douglassville in Amity Township faces Old Philadelphia Pike. Its original block is a five-bay, center-passage, double-pile house of coursed ashlar and rubble masonry under a wood-shingled gable roof. Around 1800 George Douglass II added a two-story store wing with a front loft door, and by about 1833 a one-story wing containing a smokehouse, a vaulted root cellar and an outkitchen was built. The house is regarded as a full-scale Georgian dwelling with much of its original detail intact, and the attached store wing is a comparatively early surviving example of a country store building in southeastern Pennsylvania. The Douglass family ran the store and were active in local office, including justices of the peace and a militia company captain in the Revolutionary War. The property is listed for its architecture.","period_of_significance":"1763 - ca. 1833","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Georgian","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County has owned the house since 1988 and stabilized it in 1995-2002, with restoration planned for a historic house museum and visitor center.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:10:27.096474-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/09000462.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000462/2929d710e2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000462/2929d710e2-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglass_Mansion.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglass_Mansion.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994525","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Douglass_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5538610"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/berks-county/douglass-george-house-09000462/"}