{"nrhp_refnum":"66000849","name":"Bacon's Castle","other_names":["Arthur Allen House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Off VA 10","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bacon's Castle","county":"Surry County","state":"VA","lat":37.111257918000035,"lon":-76.71998417546783,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1960-10-09","areas_of_significance":["Military","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Bacon's Castle (Arthur Allen House) is a two-story English bond brick house in Surry County, Virginia, built by Arthur Allen, probably in the early 1660s. It is cross-plan, with a curvilinear gable roof and a 19th-century Federalist addition.","why_significant":"The house was seized and fortified by rebel troops during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, which gave it its name. It is also the earliest surviving example of the cross plan in America and one of very few Tudor-style homes in the country.","narrative":"Bacon's Castle is a brick house in Surry County, Virginia, built by Arthur Allen, probably in the early 1660s. It has two stories, a five-bay front laid in English bond, a curvilinear gable roof, a two-story porch, a stair tower and end chimneys with diagonally set stacks. It is the earliest surviving example of the cross plan in America and one of very few Tudor-style houses in the country. In September 1676, during Bacon's Rebellion, rebels seized and fortified Allen's house, and the garrison controlled the south James area for about three months. That episode gave the building its name. The uprising ended by January 1677, and is described as a milestone in the growing independence of the American colonies. In the 19th century the house was altered, and a Federalist addition was built on its east end. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities acquired the house and began restoring original rooms and features, with plans to open it to visitors.","period_of_significance":"17th Century (specific dates 1676-1677)","architect_builder":"Arthur Allen","architectural_style":"Tudor","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, which was restoring the house and planned to open it to the public. Condition listed as good and altered.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.667422-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/61/6791/41679161/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/66000849_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000849/fc20a02a87-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000849/fc20a02a87-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Yellowute (talk) (Uploads)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bacons_Castle_2006.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Yellowute (talk) (Uploads)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bacons_Castle_2006.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679161","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Castle","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4839914"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/surry-county/bacons-castle-66000849/"}