{"nrhp_refnum":"73002007","name":"Clifton","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Hamilton off VA 690","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hamilton","county":"Cumberland County","state":"VA","lat":37.67346857550004,"lon":-78.13054625774862,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-06-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Clifton is a two-story, seven-bay Mid-Georgian plantation house with a one-story west wing, set on about 250 acres north of Hamilton in Cumberland County, Virginia. It was built in the mid-eighteenth century for Carter Henry Harrison.","why_significant":"Clifton was the home of Carter Henry Harrison, who wrote the Cumberland Instructions for Independence presented to the Virginia Convention of May 1776. It is also an outstanding, well-preserved mid-eighteenth century plantation house, one of few in the Upper James region, with a suite of fully paneled rooms inside.","narrative":"Clifton is a mid-eighteenth century plantation house in Cumberland County, Virginia, built for Carter Henry Harrison on land that was once part of a 1723 grant to Thomas Randolph and later passed to Robert \"King\" Carter. The seven-bay, two-story frame house faces south across cultivated fields and pastures, with Tuscan-columned porches, a slate hip roof with a modillion cornice, and brick foundations laid in English bond. Inside, the original rooms have large raised-panel walls, and later mantels were copied from Asher Benjamin's pattern book. Frame outbuildings, including a dairy, offices, barns and stables, remain nearby, and the family cemetery lies to the north. Harrison, a member of the Cumberland Committee of Safety, wrote the county's Instructions for Independence, which urged the Virginia Convention of 1776 to declare independence. The house is valued both for that Revolutionary connection and as a rare, finely proportioned survivor of its type in the Upper James region.","period_of_significance":"18th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-Georgian plantation architecture","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed in fair condition; structurally sound but in need of maintenance and minor repairs. Altered, on its original site, with a modern central heating system recently installed. Used as a private residence.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:58.023984-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/6803/41680345/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/73002007.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002007/76d04c632c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002007/76d04c632c-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clifton_driveway_with_historical_marker.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clifton_driveway_with_historical_marker.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680345","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_(Hamilton,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5133164"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/cumberland-county/clifton-73002007/"}