{"nrhp_refnum":"70000548","name":"Brown, John, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"225 E. King St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chambersburg","county":"Franklin County","state":"PA","lat":39.93897582000005,"lon":-77.65916819399996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-03-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residence at 225 East King Street in Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, built in stages from the early 1820s to the 1840s with a hewn-log core under clapboarding. The document refers to it as the John Brown House.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant because abolitionist John Brown lived there in 1859 while formulating and equipping his raid on Harpers Ferry. It states that Brown rented an upstairs bedroom under an assumed name and that visitors who discussed the plans there included Frederick Douglass and other abolitionist leaders.","narrative":"A two-and-a-half-story house on East King Street in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with a hewn-log core beneath later clapboards and a stone foundation. Its earliest section is thought to date from about 1820 to 1840, and it was extended to the rear over time. Abolitionist John Brown rented an upstairs bedroom here from June to mid-October 1859, living under the name Dr. Isaac Smith and claiming to be developing iron mines. During this stay he formulated plans and gathered tools and weapons for his attack on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, on October 16, 1859. Equipment was bought from the Lemnos Edge Tool Works and stored at the Oaks and Cauffman Warehouse before being moved to the Kennedy Farm. The house sits half a city block from the Cumberland Valley Railroad station. Frederick Douglass, Shields Green and J. Henry Kagi were among those who met Brown here to discuss the raid.","period_of_significance":"1859","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The house was slated for demolition as part of the King Street Urban Renewal Project, with razing scheduled for the first quarter of 1970; the document states the house has been in continuous use as a residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.696557-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/70000548.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000548/cdfa3c819c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000548/cdfa3c819c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JBrown_Chambersburg_PA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JBrown_Chambersburg_PA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994971","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_House_(Chambersburg,_Pennsylvania)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6223542"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/franklin-county/brown-john-house-70000548/"}