{"nrhp_refnum":"70000466","name":"Blockhouse Site","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"E of U.S. 176","address_restricted":false,"city":"Tryon","county":"Polk County","state":"NC","lat":35.196501503000036,"lon":-82.21761955299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-10-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Politics/Government","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An eight-acre site near Tryon, Polk County, North Carolina, on the North Carolina-South Carolina boundary, where a log block house stood from about 1756 and where a stone marks the western end of the state line.","why_significant":"The site was a landmark on the old Blackstock Road and was the western terminus of the 1772 North-South Carolina dividing line and the starting point of the 1813 boundary. It served as a trading post, frontier fort, Revolutionary War staging area and, later, a camp on a trade route. The 1815 boundary marker stone remains in its original position.","narrative":"Near Tryon, on the line between North and South Carolina, an eight-acre site marks the place where a log block house stood from about 1756. It began as a trading post and was soon modified into a fort protecting settlers during the French and Indian War. The site lay on the old Blackstock Road, which ran from lower South Carolina to the mountains. It became the western end of the 1772 dividing line between the two colonies, and in 1776 it was briefly called Fort Howard. In 1813 commissioners from both states used it as the starting point for a new boundary, and in 1815 a stone was placed there to mark that line. After the Civil War it was a camp on a trade route and a spot for illegal cockfights and whiskey making. The house was moved 300 yards in 1942 and heavily altered, so the site rather than the building was listed. The boundary stone remains in place.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The block house was moved about 300 yards into North Carolina in 1942 and was remodeled and enlarged; the surrounding land is used as pasture, stables and racetrack. The 1813 marker stone remains in its original position.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.376712-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/68/7218/47721868/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/70000466.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000466/4d38424f41-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000466/4d38424f41-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Block_House_Historic_Site.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Block_House_Historic_Site.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721868","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockhouse_Site","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19867552"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/polk-county/blockhouse-site-70000466/"}