{"nrhp_refnum":"73001294","name":"Orton Plantation","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"9149 Orton Rd. Southeast","address_restricted":false,"city":"Winnabow","county":"Brunswick County","state":"NC","lat":34.05891837100003,"lon":-77.94513650747561,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-04-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Agriculture","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Orton Plantation is a large Classical Revival mansion with formal gardens and former rice fields on the Cape Fear River near Winnabow in Brunswick County, North Carolina. The brick core dates to about 1735, with major enlargement in the 1840s and wings added in 1910.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Orton as a composite of three centuries of Cape Fear history, from naval stores and rice plantation wealth to a restored winter retreat. It was home to notable owners including \"King\" Roger Moore, Governor Benjamin Smith and Dr. Frederick Jones Hill. It is also described as North Carolina's best-known antebellum showplace, with gardens among the best known in the Southeast.","narrative":"Orton Plantation is a large mansion on the west bank of the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County, set among live oaks and magnolias. Its first-story brick walls date to about 1735, when Roger Moore built a one-and-one-half story house. In the 1840s, during Dr. Frederick Jones Hill's ownership, it was enlarged into a two-story Greek Revival temple-form house with a Doric portico. Wings were added in 1910 by architect Kenneth Murchison for owner James Sprunt, and a rear expansion followed in the early 1960s. The plantation earned wealth first from naval stores and then rice, and later owners included Governor Benjamin Smith and Colonel K. M. Murchison, who restored it as a winter hunting retreat. The grounds include early twentieth-century gardens, partly designed by Robert Swann Sturtevant, a 1915 chapel, a tomb said to be Moore's, and old rice-field ditches. The property was recognized as a widely known example of the Southern mansion.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Kenneth Murchison, architect of the 1910 additions; gardens partly designed by landscape architect Robert Swann Sturtevant","architectural_style":"Classical Revival; Greek Revival temple form (1840s) with Neoclassical Revival wings (1910)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and altered; the house is a private residence (occupied) and the gardens are open to the public.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.609604-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/7190/47719097/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/73001294.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001294/10e04da6b2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001294/10e04da6b2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"AgnosticPreachersKid.","credit_html":"AgnosticPreachersKid., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orton_House_at_Orton_Plantation,_Brunswick_County,_North_Carolina.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"13000698","name":"Orton Plantation (Boundary Increase)","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/north-carolina/orton-plantation-boundary-increase-13000698/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719097","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orton_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7105097"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/brunswick-county/orton-plantation-73001294/"}