{"nrhp_refnum":"70000785","name":"Three Otters","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W of jct. of Rte. 838 and VA 43","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bedford","county":"Bedford (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.356384567500044,"lon":-79.54587095834037,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1970-09-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick Greek Revival country house on a hilltop north of Route 838 near Bedford, Bedford County, Virginia, begun about 1827 by merchant Abel Beach Nichols.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a rare, important example of a non-temple-form Greek Revival country house of mansion quality. Its details derive directly from plates in Asher Benjamin's The Practical House Carpenter. It also served as a social center for the Bedford area through the nineteenth century.","narrative":"Three Otters is a large brick country house on the crest of a hill near Bedford, Virginia, with views toward the Peaks of Otter. Abel Beach Nichols, a Connecticut-born merchant who settled in Bedford County in 1820, probably began it in 1827 and finished it after 1830. The two-story house is about fifty feet square, with Flemish bond brickwork, a low hipped roof, and a Doric entablature whose openings light the attic and help ventilate the rooms. Inside, the woodwork follows plates from Asher Benjamin's The Practical House Carpenter, and a three-story staircase retains its original marbleizing. Early outbuildings survive, including a kitchen and pantry building and a brick well house with a Greek Revival cupola. Throughout the nineteenth century the house was a social center for the area, known for horse racing and for entertaining Robert E. Lee. It is valued as a rare non-temple-form Greek Revival mansion built by an unknown master carpenter.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":"Abel Beach Nichols (builder/owner); design executed by an unknown master carpenter using Asher Benjamin's handbook","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in good condition, unaltered, on its original site, and occupied as a private residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:58.100933-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/46/6797/41679746/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/70000785.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000785/c20839b99b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/70000785/c20839b99b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"LeeG7144","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Otters.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">LeeG7144</a>, <a href=\"https://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:Three_Otters.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679746","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Otters","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713346"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/bedford/three-otters-70000785/"}