{"nrhp_refnum":"71000991","name":"Spence's Point","other_names":["John R. Dos Passos Farm"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"On Sandy Point Neck, on VA 749","address_restricted":false,"city":"Westmoreland","county":"Westmoreland County","state":"VA","lat":38.08131457750005,"lon":-76.56647961065637,"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":"A farm on Sandy Point Neck along the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia, centered on a two-and-a-half-story Federal-style brick house dating from 1806, with a wing added in the 1940s. It was the home of author John Dos Passos.","why_significant":"The property is tied to John Dos Passos, described as one of the major and most influential modern American writers, known for the U.S.A. trilogy and Manhattan Transfer. He restored the house beginning in the early 1940s and lived there permanently from 1949 until his death in 1970, writing his final works here. The nominated area also includes his boyhood home at Sandy Point.","narrative":"Spence's Point, also called the John Dos Passos Farm, occupies about 1,800 acres on Sandy Point Neck beside the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Its main house is a simple two-and-a-half-story brick Federal-style building. The older section dates from 1806 and has a side-hall plan, common-bond brick walls and a corbeled cornice. Dos Passos added a wing in the 1940s with a library, sitting room and a two-tiered veranda facing the river. Williamsburg-made pine paneling was installed during his restoration. The property matters because of John Dos Passos, whose U.S.A. trilogy and Manhattan Transfer helped shape modern American fiction. He spent boyhood summers on the family farm, returned in the early 1940s to restore the house, and settled here in 1949. He lived in Westmoreland County for his last twenty-five years and wrote his final works here. The boundaries also take in his boyhood home about two miles downriver.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1942-1970","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied by the author's widow; furnishings remain and the study is largely undisturbed; the Sandy Point boyhood house has passed out of the family.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.522338-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/6791/41679172/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/71000991_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000991/2ad0c3be5b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000991/2ad0c3be5b-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"National Park Service photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spence%27s_Point,_John_Dos_Passos_Farm,_(Westmoreland_County,_Virginia).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">National Park Service photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spence%27s_Point,_John_Dos_Passos_Farm,_(Westmoreland_County,_Virginia).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679172","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spence%27s_Point","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7575938"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/westmoreland-county/spences-point-71000991/"}