{"nrhp_refnum":"09000847","name":"Midgett, Rasmus, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"25438 NC Hwy 12","address_restricted":false,"city":"Waves","county":"Dare County","state":"NC","lat":35.54529297100004,"lon":-75.47155339099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2009-10-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame house on N.C. Highway 12 in Waves, on Hatteras Island in Dare County, North Carolina, begun around 1850-1860 and expanded into its present two-story form around 1890, with a family cemetery behind it.","why_significant":"It is tied to Rasmus Midgett (1851-1926), a U.S. Life-Saving Service surfman who received a Gold Life-Saving Medal for rescuing ten sailors from the wreck of the Priscilla in 1899. It is also a well-preserved and increasingly rare example of the two-story, single-pile frame house with rear kitchen ell found on Hatteras Island.","narrative":"This two-story frame house on Hatteras Island in Waves, North Carolina, grew from a mid-nineteenth-century hall-parlor dwelling into a central-passage house with a rear kitchen ell around 1890. It has wood shingle and weatherboard siding, brick chimneys at the gable ends and a porch across the front. A 1937 hurricane pushed it off its foundation, and it was moved about 200 feet to face the road. A family cemetery with graves from the 1860s onward lies behind it. The house is best known as the lifelong home of Rasmus Midgett, a surfman at the Gull Shoal life-saving station. During Hurricane San Ciriaco in August 1899 he rescued ten sailors from the wrecked ship Priscilla, entering the surf repeatedly, and he later received a Gold Life-Saving Medal. The house is also valued as a surviving example of a vernacular type built by fishing and life-saving families during the island's building boom of about 1890 to 1920. A restoration took place between 2007 and 2009.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1890; 1899","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Other: Vernacular Two-story, Single-pile House","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Restored 2007-2009; current function listed as commerce (business) with a cemetery on the grounds. The house was moved about 200 feet after a 1937 storm.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:54.389394-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/1/7199/47719901/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/09000847.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000847/665c4161dc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/09000847/665c4161dc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jasonspsyche","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rasmus_Midgett_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jasonspsyche</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:Rasmus_Midgett_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719901","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasmus_Midgett_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18217062"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/dare-county/midgett-rasmus-house-09000847/"}