{"nrhp_refnum":"69000328","name":"Shirley","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5 mi. N of Hopewell off VA 608","address_restricted":false,"city":"Charles City","county":"Charles City County","state":"VA","lat":37.34132313150005,"lon":-77.25681530277058,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1969-10-01","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1970-04-15","areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Shirley is a colonial plantation house with a surrounding forecourt of outbuildings on an 800-acre nominated tract in Charles City County, Virginia, near Hopewell. The house was complete by 1770 and has been the seat of the Carter family since.","why_significant":"The form calls Shirley one of Virginia's largest and finest colonial mansions. Its fabric has remained virtually unchanged, and it still holds the possessions of a distinguished colonial family, including silver, china, furniture and portraits. It was also the birthplace of Anne Hill Carter, mother of Robert E. Lee, in 1773.","narrative":"Shirley is a brick plantation house on the James River side of Charles City County, Virginia, finished by 1770 and home to the Carter family ever since. It is a large, nearly square, two-and-a-half-story building with a mansard roof, dormers, and matching two-story pedimented porticoes on its land and river fronts. The brickwork is laid in Flemish bond with rubbed brick window dressings. Inside, a three-story staircase with a walnut balustrade stands out, and the first-floor rooms are fully paneled. A forecourt of stables, kitchen, overseer's house and an early dovecote completes the complex. The land began as a 9,376-acre tract patented by Edward Hill in 1660, and the Hill-Carter line began with a marriage in 1723. Anne Hill Carter, mother of Robert E. Lee, was born here in 1773. The house is valued as one of Virginia's finest colonial mansions and for the family belongings still kept inside.","period_of_significance":"18th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked good and the property is occupied; it is still used as a private residence and museum, with agricultural use also checked.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.942074-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/24/6800/41680024/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/69000328.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000328/b67a479283-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/69000328/b67a479283-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"P. Hughes","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virginia_-_Shirley_Plantation_01.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">P. Hughes</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Virginia_-_Shirley_Plantation_01.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680024","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7498824"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/charles-city-county/shirley-69000328/"}