{"nrhp_refnum":"72001397","name":"Bolling Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W of Goochland off VA 600","address_restricted":false,"city":"Goochland","county":"Goochland County","state":"VA","lat":37.67794972650003,"lon":-77.9561174175194,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-12-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Bolling Hall is a rambling clapboarded farm dwelling in rural Goochland County, Virginia, overlooking the bottom lands of the upper James River. The earliest section was built by William Bolling around the third quarter of the eighteenth century.","why_significant":"The nomination cites the house's early association with deaf education in the United States, since John Briarwood taught William Bolling's deaf children here before a school was set up at nearby Cobbs. It is also the earliest surviving house tied to the Bolling family, because Cobbs burned in 1829. It is further one of the few colonial plantation houses of the upper James region that keeps much of its original fabric and rural setting.","narrative":"Bolling Hall is a long, clapboarded farm dwelling set in the rolling hills of Goochland County, Virginia, above the flat bottom lands of the upper James River. William Bolling built the oldest part in the third quarter of the eighteenth century as a two-story, side-hall house on land his family had held since 1714. Additions followed around 1803 and 1815, and a major remodeling between 1845 and 1861 added a stair tower and raised the east wing. A mid-twentieth-century renovation rescued the house from use as a barn. Early sash, beaded clapboards, Flemish bond foundation sections and eighteenth-century-style paneling survive. The property is notable for its link to deaf education: John Briarwood taught Bolling's deaf children here in the 1810s, which led to the first school for the deaf in the United States at the family's nearby Cobbs house. It also remains one of few colonial plantation houses of the upper James region with its rural setting intact.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"William Bolling (builder of the earliest portion)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied private residence; altered over time, with a 1947 renovation after the house had been used as a barn. The early outbuildings have disappeared.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.443735-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/79/6809/41680979/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/72001397.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001397/4502eeb1c1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001397/4502eeb1c1-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bolling_Hall_avenue.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bolling_Hall_avenue.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680979","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolling_Hall_(Goochland,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712050"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/goochland-county/bolling-hall-72001397/"}