{"nrhp_refnum":"69000248","name":"Malvern Hill (Additional Documentation)","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SE of jct. of VA 5 and VA 156","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond","county":"Henrico County","state":"VA","lat":37.39805975050004,"lon":-77.2408162145778,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1969-11-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Malvern Hill is the ruin of a late seventeenth-century brick house on a high bluff overlooking the James River, about 14.5 miles east of Richmond in Henrico County, Virginia. Only the foundations and the east gable end wall with its chimney remain.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is architecturally important as one of the few known cruciform-plan houses in Virginia, and its surviving chimney is described as perhaps the finest example of seventeenth-century diaper brickwork in the state. The site is also historically tied to military events, including the 1862 battle between Lee and McClellan.","narrative":"Malvern Hill is the ruin of a brick house set on a high bluff above the James River, east of Richmond in Henrico County. Thomas Cocke, high sheriff of Henrico and a member of the House of Burgesses, built it, and the Cocke family held the property until the late eighteenth century. The chimneys may have come from a wooden house possibly dating to 1662, and the brick house was probably rebuilt around 1690-1700. Photographs show a one-and-a-half story house with a cruciform plan and a steep gable roof. Fire destroyed it around 1905, leaving the foundations and the east gable wall with its massive chimney, which is decorated with diamond-shaped diaper work in glazed brick. The nomination values it as one of the few known cruciform-plan houses in Virginia. The bluff also saw Lafayette's encampment in 1781, Virginia militia in the War of 1812, and the battle between Lee and McClellan on July 1, 1862.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Thomas Cocke","architectural_style":"Cruciform-plan house with diaper brickwork","criteria":[],"status_note":"Destroyed by fire circa 1905; only the foundations and east end wall with chimney remain, in ruins, with the brick badly deteriorated and little done to stabilize it.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.476265-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/52/6812/41681252/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/69000248.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000248/c2e09dc095-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000248/c2e09dc095-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at Wikipedia.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MalvernHillHouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">The original uploader was Ser Amantio di Nicolao at Wikipedia.</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MalvernHillHouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":null,"wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvern_Hill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6745065"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/henrico-county/malvern-hill-additional-documentation-69000248/"}