{"nrhp_refnum":"66000922","name":"Tyler, John, House","other_names":["Sherwood Forest"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"4 mi. E of Charles City on VA 5","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charles City","county":"Charles City County","state":"VA","lat":37.33402978000004,"lon":-77.01953301860075,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1966-10-15","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1961-07-04","areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Sherwood Forest, the plantation home of President John Tyler on Virginia Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. The main house is a two-and-a-half-story frame building erected in 1780, expanded by Tyler after he bought the estate in 1842.","why_significant":"It was the home of John Tyler, tenth President of the United States, from 1842 until his death in 1862. He bought the then-called Creek Plantation after succeeding to the Presidency in 1841 and renamed it Sherwood Forest. The form also notes its unusual architecture: a house about 300 feet long but only one room wide.","narrative":"Sherwood Forest is a Virginia plantation house on Route 5 in Charles City County, once part of an estate of about 1,190 acres known as Creek Plantation. The main house, a two-and-a-half-story frame building, dates to 1780. After John Tyler bought it in 1842, he added a covered colonnade linking the house to a kitchen and laundry on the east, and built a west wing with a ballroom and private office. The result is a house some 300 feet long yet only one room wide. Tyler, the tenth President, lived here until his death in 1862, and he chose the name Sherwood Forest because he saw himself as a political outlaw, like Robin Hood. He had become President in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died. Surviving structures include four dependencies, a hunting lodge, outbuildings, a grist mill and traces of the old Mapsico Road. In the mid-1970s the mansion was deteriorating and a restoration was planned.","period_of_significance":"1842-1862","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Privately owned and occupied. The form describes parts of the mansion and dependencies as deteriorated in 1974, with a restoration planned by the owners in 1975.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.174209-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/3/6790/41679003/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/66000922_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000922/945b6274c7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/66000922/945b6274c7-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Gottscho, Samuel H. (Samuel Herman), 1875-1971, photographer.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherwood_Forest-1961.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Gottscho, Samuel H. (Samuel Herman), 1875-1971, photographer.</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherwood_Forest-1961.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679003","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7495533"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/charles-city-county/tyler-john-house-66000922/"}