{"nrhp_refnum":"71000286","name":"Benet, Stephen Vincent, House","other_names":["President's Home,Augusta College","Commandant's House","Augusta"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2500 Walton Way","address_restricted":false,"city":"Augusta","county":"Richmond County","state":"GA","lat":33.47582504800005,"lon":-82.02317640897061,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-11-11","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1971-11-11","areas_of_significance":["Literature"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Commandant's House of the old Augusta Arsenal, a two-story brick residence at 2500 Walton Way in Augusta, Georgia, part of a Federal-style complex completed between 1827 and 1829. It later served as the President's home for Augusta College.","why_significant":"It is the surviving building most closely tied to the career of poet and author Stephen Vincent Benet, who lived there from 1911 to 1915 while his father commanded the arsenal. There he wrote his first book, Five Men and Pompey, a turning point toward artistic maturity. The house and setting also have significance as part of an early 19th-century military post.","narrative":"Built between 1827 and 1829 as the commandant's quarters of the Augusta Arsenal, this two-story brick house in Augusta, Georgia, sits on a full basement and follows a side-hall plan. A two-tier portico with Tuscan columns and dentiled cornices runs along the front and south side, and the side porch has since been enclosed as sunrooms. Nineteenth-century remodelings added a north wing and changed the woodwork and window sashing. The house is tied to poet and author Stephen Vincent Benet, whose father, Col. J. Walker Benet, commanded the arsenal from 1911. Stephen lived here until autumn 1915 and wrote his first book, Five Men and Pompey, in the summer of that year. He later won Pulitzer Prizes for John Brown's Body and Western Star. After the arsenal closed in 1955, the grounds passed to the local board of education and then to the state university system, and the house became the Augusta College president's residence.","period_of_significance":"1911-1921","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in excellent condition and used as the college president's home; redecorated inside in early 1971 with no structural changes.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.350505-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/71000286_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000286/728b7d5241-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000286/728b7d5241-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Flickr user Stacie Wells","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benet_House_with_Christmas_wreath_(Augusta_State_University).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Flickr user Stacie Wells</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benet_House_with_Christmas_wreath_(Augusta_State_University).jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"80001229","name":"Summerville Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/georgia/summerville-historic-district-80001229/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93206795","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Vincent_Ben%C3%A9t_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7610758"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/richmond-county/benet-stephen-vincent-house-71000286/"}