{"nrhp_refnum":"72001501","name":"Southern Seminary Main Building","other_names":["Buena Vista Hotel","Southern Virginia University Main Hall","Vdhr #103-0002"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of Ivy and Park Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buena Vista (Independent City)","county":"Buena Vista","state":"VA","lat":37.74018937000005,"lon":-79.35025801299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-04-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large crescent-shaped building at the intersection of Ivy Avenue and Park Avenue in Buena Vista, Virginia, built as a hotel around 1890-1891 and later used as the main building of Southern Seminary school.","why_significant":"It is one of the most impressive of the Shenandoah Valley's land-boom hotels, built by the Buena Vista Company after a fire destroyed its first hotel. Its Queen Anne design with French Renaissance and Romanesque touches survives in excellent condition. Its long use and careful maintenance by Southern Seminary preserved it as one of the last and possibly best examples of western Virginia boom hotel architecture.","narrative":"Overlooking downtown Buena Vista from a promontory, this vast crescent-shaped building began as a hotel in the land boom that followed the Norfolk and Western Railroad into the Shenandoah Valley. The Buena Vista Company, headed by A. T. Barclay, rebuilt it quickly after a fire in July 1890, using a design by architect S. W. Foulks and contractor J. P. Pettyjohn. The main story is brick with frame upper floors, a steep slate roof, round towers with conical and domical roofs, wooden galleries and Romanesque stone arches. After the Panic of 1893 closed the hotel, Dr. Edgar H. Rowe bought it and opened a school there in 1901, which became the main institution of the Southern Seminary system by 1907. The school kept the hotel as its principal building and maintained it carefully. It is described as one of the last, if not the best, examples of western Virginia's boom hotel architecture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect S. W. Foulks of Pennsylvania; contractor J. P. Pettyjohn of Lynchburg","architectural_style":"Queen Anne with French Renaissance influence","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as the main building of Southern Seminary school; condition described as excellent, with first-floor rooms as offices and reception rooms and upper floors as student dormitories.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.40463-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/10/6799/41679910/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/72001501.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001501/f64db8260f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001501/f64db8260f-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Seminary_Main_Building_Nov_12.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southern_Seminary_Main_Building_Nov_12.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":null,"wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Seminary_Main_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713227"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/buena-vista/southern-seminary-main-building-72001501/"}