{"nrhp_refnum":"72001409","name":"Mills, James, Storehouse","other_names":["Old Tobacco Warehouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S side of Rte. T-1002","address_restricted":false,"city":"Urbanna","county":"Middlesex County","state":"VA","lat":37.63651457100008,"lon":-76.57264987399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-11-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick colonial storehouse in Urbanna, Middlesex County, Virginia, built between 1763 and 1767 for the merchant firm James Mills and Company. It is commonly called the Old Tobacco Warehouse.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a rare, if not unique, survivor of a storehouse run by a resident factor of a British company, handling both tobacco sales and imported goods sold to planters on credit. It reflects the eighteenth-century shift toward outport merchants and the rise of Scottish merchants in the tobacco trade. Urbanna is presented as a good example of a colonial Tidewater tobacco port.","narrative":"Overlooking Virginia Street in Urbanna, this brick storehouse was built between 1763 and 1767 for James Mills and Company. It rises over a full basement, with Flemish bond brickwork, queen closers, a gable roof with a raking cornice, and a six-bay porch on the north front. The building represents the colonial tobacco trade of the Tidewater, when a resident factor for a British firm sold tobacco and stocked imported goods that planters bought on credit. Its Scottish merchant owners took part in the rapid growth of Scotland's share of the British tobacco trade, from ten percent in 1738 to fifty-two percent by 1769. A 1767 map is the first record of the structure. The Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities bought it in 1938, investigated it architecturally in 1960, and restored it beginning in 1964. Since 1966 the town has used it as a library.","period_of_significance":"18th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Rated in good condition and restored from 1964; the building has been used as a town library since the restoration. It is owned by the Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.721282-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/48/6819/41681948/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/72001409.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001409/b689e0954f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001409/b689e0954f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"unknown HABS photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Mills_Storehouse_HABS_VA1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">unknown HABS photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Mills_Storehouse_HABS_VA1.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100005837","name":"Occupacia-Rappahannock Rural Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/occupacia-rappahannock-rural-historic-district-100005837/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681948","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mills_Storehouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712621"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/middlesex-county/mills-james-storehouse-72001409/"}