{"nrhp_refnum":"13000698","name":"Orton Plantation (Boundary Increase)","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"9149 Orton Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Winnabow","county":"Brunswick County","state":"NC","lat":34.04573156750007,"lon":-77.94934565008029,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2013-09-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture","Landscape Architecture","Politics/Government","Social History","Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Orton is a large Classical Revival plantation house with extensive gardens, located at Winnabow in Brunswick County, North Carolina, on the west bank of the Cape Fear River. The earliest brick walls date to about 1735, and the house was enlarged into a Greek Revival temple-form structure in the 1840s.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that Orton is an impressive composite of three centuries of history, shaped by naval stores and rice production and by a series of notable owners. It is described as perhaps the best-known antebellum showplace in North Carolina, with superb gardens and a Greek Revival temple-form house. The boundary increase relates to the wider plantation and its landscape.","narrative":"Orton stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River near Winnabow, with a brick core dating to about 1735 when Roger Moore built his house there. In the 1840s the house was enlarged into a two-story Greek Revival temple form with a Doric portico, and Neoclassical Revival wings and interior work followed in 1910 under architect Kenneth Murchison. The house passed through a series of owners, including Governor Benjamin Smith, and was reclaimed in the 1880s as a winter hunting retreat after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Its gardens, developed in the early twentieth century with designs by landscape architect Robert Swann Sturtevant, are among the best known in the Southeast. The property is regarded as a major example of the romanticized Southern mansion, combining layered architectural periods and a wealthy plantation history based on naval stores and rice.","period_of_significance":"1735-1910","architect_builder":"Kenneth Murchison (architect for the 1910 additions); Robert Swann Sturtevant (landscape architect)","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The gardens are open to the public and the rice fields are leased to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission as a waterfowl sanctuary.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.35664-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/7190/47719097/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/73001294.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"78001932","name":"Brunswick Town Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/brunswick-town-historic-district-78001932/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":null,"wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/brunswick-county/orton-plantation-boundary-increase-13000698/"}