{"nrhp_refnum":"71000565","name":"Owl's Nest","other_names":["Edward Eggleston Estate"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NY 9L","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lake George","county":"Warren County","state":"NY","lat":43.44363366200005,"lon":-73.65448291535284,"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":"An estate on Dunham Bay, Lake George, in the Joshua's Rock area of Warren County, New York, with buildings dating from about 1879 to 1890 that were associated with novelist Edward Eggleston. The historic portion has three main buildings, a library, a cottage and a private cemetery.","why_significant":"Edward Eggleston was among the earliest American realistic novelists and possibly the first to treat frontier life seriously in fiction. Lake George was his only permanent address from the early 1880s, and he wrote most of his later work there, including two volumes of social history. He built the library and residence on the estate and is buried there.","narrative":"Owl's Nest is a lakeside estate on Dunham Bay at Joshua's Rock, Lake George, tied to the novelist and historian Edward Eggleston. The core of the property holds three main buildings: \"The Homestead,\" built by Eggleston's daughter Elizabeth and her husband Elwin Seelye around 1879; \"Mellowstone,\" a stone library Eggleston built in 1883; and his one-and-a-half story stone residence, with a frame wing added about 1890. A small wooden library he gave to the county and a private cemetery, where he is buried, are also on the grounds. Eggleston began summering at Lake George in 1875 and made it his permanent address from the early 1880s. He wrote most of his later work here, including two volumes of a history of life in the United States. He was among the first American realistic novelists to treat frontier life seriously, and he died at the estate in 1902. His descendants still use it as a summer home.","period_of_significance":"1881 to 1902","architect_builder":"Edward Eggleston (built \"Mellowstone\" and his residence); Elizabeth and Elwin Seelye built \"The Homestead\"","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered, on its original site. Used as a private summer residence by descendants of Eggleston. A small library on the grounds is still used by the county.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.798028-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/71000565_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000565/ce58ac94b8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000565/ce58ac94b8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daniel Case","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Owl%27s_Nest,_Dunhams_Bay,_NY.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Case</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:Owl%27s_Nest,_Dunhams_Bay,_NY.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75316103","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl%27s_Nest","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2042692"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/warren-county/owls-nest-71000565/"}