{"nrhp_refnum":"70000455","name":"Blandwood","other_names":["Keeley Institute"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"447 W. Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Greensboro","county":"Guilford County","state":"NC","lat":36.06934775300007,"lon":-79.79373563560523,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-04-17","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1988-06-07","areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Blandwood is a stuccoed brick Italianate villa at 411 West Washington Street in Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina. It was enlarged in 1844-45 to designs by Alexander Jackson Davis for Governor John Motley Morehead, around an earlier two-room house.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is an excellent example of Davis's Italianate style, a \"Tuscan villa\" that Davis also supplied to Andrew Jackson Downing's landscape gardening treatise, where it was the only southern house shown. It is also the home of John Motley Morehead, an influential governor and promoter of transportation, schools and state institutions.","narrative":"Blandwood is a stuccoed brick villa on West Washington Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. Its centerpiece is an entrance tower with semi-circular arches, a low, deeply projecting tin-sheathed roof and fanciful chimneys. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed the Italianate enlargement in 1844-45 for Governor John Motley Morehead, building around a small earlier house. Arcaded walls once linked the main block to a kitchen and the governor's office, though those outbuildings are gone. Inside, the parlor, dining room and hall have elaborate plaster ceilings with anthemion and grape-leaf ornament. Davis's drawing of the house appeared in Andrew Jackson Downing's 1859 landscape gardening treatise, the only southern house included. Morehead, governor from 1841 to 1845, pressed for a unified transportation system, common schools, and state institutions, and helped found the North Carolina Railroad. The house later passed to the Gray family and then served as a treatment center until 1965, before preservation ownership.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Alexander Jackson Davis","architectural_style":"Italianate (\"Tuscan villa\")","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in fair condition and altered, with preservation work in progress and use as a museum. The rear early house section is described as altered and dilapidated. It was used as an alcoholic rehabilitation center until 1965.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.429144-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/84/7205/47720584/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/70000455.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000455/132701f993-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000455/132701f993-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"en:User:Exwhysee","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BlandwoodMansion.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">en:User:Exwhysee</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BlandwoodMansion.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720584","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blandwood_Mansion_and_Gardens","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4925042"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/guilford-county/blandwood-70000455/"}