{"nrhp_refnum":"12001250","name":"Seward Plantation","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"10005 FM 390 E.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Independence","county":"Washington County","state":"TX","lat":30.852645000000052,"lon":-93.75354499999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2013-01-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Agriculture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 60-acre plantation historic district about one mile east of Independence, Washington County, Texas, established around 1855 by John H. Seward. It includes a Greek Revival main house, slave quarters, a smokehouse, barns, outbuildings, remnants of the La Bahía Road and a commemorative marker.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Seward Plantation as one of the most intact examples of antebellum plantation architecture in the region, still held by the same family since construction. It shows the evolution of a Texas farmstead from the 1850s onward, including cotton and later livestock agriculture, and the slave labor behind it. The complex also lies beside the route of the historic La Bahía Road.","narrative":"Seward Plantation is a 60-acre farmstead east of Independence in Washington County, Texas, laid out around 1855 by John H. Seward. Its centerpiece is a vernacular Greek Revival house of native red cedar on a shale foundation, with a double gallery across the south front. Family tradition says the house began as one story and was rolled about three-quarters of a mile to its present site before 1860, where a second story and rear additions followed. Around it stand a stone smokehouse, a log duplex that served as slave quarters, a frame cabin and blacksmith shed, barns, and the swale of the old La Bahía Road, which once passed within 50 yards of the porch until the 1950s. The property has stayed with the Seward family and remains largely intact. It is listed as a district because it preserves the buildings, landscape and agricultural history of an antebellum Texas plantation, from cotton growing to later hay and cattle.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century: Greek Revival","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"The main house is in good condition and retains a high degree of integrity. The current functions listed include a single dwelling, barn, commemorative monument and vacant.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.243435-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/6/9739/40973906/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/12001250.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12001250/107acac449-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12001250/107acac449-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"James I. Campbell","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seward_Plantation_House,_Independence,_Texas.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">James I. Campbell</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seward_Plantation_House,_Independence,_Texas.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40973906","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seward_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18217281"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/washington-county/seward-plantation-12001250/"}