{"nrhp_refnum":"69000253","name":"Chelsea","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of jct. of Chelsea Rd. and Rte. 30","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Point","county":"King William County","state":"VA","lat":37.596803118000054,"lon":-76.82913623299567,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1969-11-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Chelsea is an early-eighteenth-century brick house on the west bank of the Mattaponi River, about 4.6 miles north of West Point in King William County, Virginia. It is believed to have been built around 1709 by Augustine Moore.","why_significant":"The nomination ranks the brickwork among the best in Virginia and notes that the fine interior panelling relates to mansions such as Wilton and Tazewell Hall. Its shallow single-room-deep plan is an unusual example of housebuilding before the two-room-deep plan became standard. It also has historical associations with Governor Spotswood's 1716 expedition and with Lafayette's 1781 headquarters.","narrative":"Chelsea is a brick house on the west bank of the Mattaponi River in King William County, Virginia, thought to have been built around 1709 by planter Augustine Moore. Its two-story main block has a T-shaped plan with a hipped roof, modillioned cornice and Flemish bond brickwork, including glazed headers, rubbed brick belt course and rubbed arches. A gambrel-roofed rear ell extends to the west. Inside, the central hall is panelled in walnut and flanked by pine-panelled rooms with Doric pilasters and a slender-balustered stair. The house is tied to several events: Governor Spotswood and his Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe set out from here in 1716, and in 1781 Lafayette's army camped at the property and used the house as headquarters. It remained with the Moore family until about 1874. The brickwork ranks among the best in Virginia, and the shallow plan shows an early variation in Virginia house design.","period_of_significance":"18th Century","architect_builder":"Augustine Moore (believed builder)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in private residential use, in good condition; the form says the property is not open to the public.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.461944-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/66/6814/41681466/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/69000253.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000253/9d5517f86c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000253/9d5517f86c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"jjmusgrove","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Front_Elevation_(Chelsea_plantation).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">jjmusgrove</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Front_Elevation_(Chelsea_plantation).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681466","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_(West_Point,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712159"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/king-william-county/chelsea-69000253/"}