{"nrhp_refnum":"09000684","name":"Kennedy Memorial Home Historic District","other_names":["Cedar Dell"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"2557 Ceder Dell La.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kinston","county":"Lenoir County","state":"NC","lat":35.243095584500054,"lon":-77.68167574150857,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-09-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1,240-acre rural campus and farm on the south side of U.S. Highway 70 about five miles west of Kinston, Lenoir County, North Carolina, anchored by the antebellum Cedar Dell plantation house and the Kennedy Memorial Home orphanage, which the Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina has operated since 1914.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the district is significant for its long operation as a Baptist orphanage and as a working farm that fed the children and produced income for the institution. It also points to the Federal-period Cedar Dell house, with its Eastlake additions, and to the surviving fields and woodland that show continuity with the farm's appearance in 1940.","narrative":"Set along a broad avenue off Kennedy Home Road, the district combines a plantation landscape with a working orphanage. Cedar Dell, a two-and-one-half-story brick side-hall house begun in 1832, was enlarged in the 1880s with Eastlake veranda and dormers, and its brick kitchen and early outbuildings survive. In 1912 Captain William Kennedy and his wife deeded the property to the Thomasville Baptist orphanage, and the first cottages opened in 1914. Brick Craftsman, Colonial Revival and Ranch-style cottages, a church and farm buildings followed through the 1950s, when enrollment peaked near 160 children. The farm supplied food, feed and fertilizer, and it produced revenue for the institution until agricultural operations ended in 1993. Fields and woodland have changed little since 1940. The district is significant for its social history and its agriculture, reflecting how orphanages cared for children and sustained themselves in mid-twentieth-century North Carolina.","period_of_significance":"1914-1959","architect_builder":"Adams, Jack, architect","architectural_style":"Federal; Stick/Eastlake; Bungalow/Craftsman","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The orphanage remains in operation; the nomination notes that buildings constructed after 1959 are noncontributing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:13:54.636465-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/64/7210/47721064/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/09000684.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000684/559e0b95f5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000684/559e0b95f5-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Tradewinds","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kennedy_Memorail_Home_Historic_District.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Tradewinds</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kennedy_Memorail_Home_Historic_District.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721064","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Memorial_Home_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19462704"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/lenoir-county/kennedy-memorial-home-historic-district-09000684/"}