{"nrhp_refnum":"73002017","name":"Reed, Walter, Birthplace","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW of Gloucester at jct. of VA 614 and 616","address_restricted":false,"city":"Belroi","county":"Gloucester County","state":"VA","lat":37.388543868000056,"lon":-76.58812380199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-09-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Health/Medicine","Architecture","Commerce","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Conservation"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-story, three-bay frame cottage with a gable roof and white weatherboarding, at the north corner of Routes 614 and 616 in Belroi, Gloucester County, Virginia. Built in the first half of the nineteenth century, it is the birthplace of Dr. Walter Reed.","why_significant":"It is the birthplace of Dr. Walter Reed, who proved that mosquitoes transmit yellow fever. It also represents the small vernacular rural dwelling once common in Tidewater Virginia, a type that has largely disappeared. Its preservation through the Reed association keeps an example of an ordinary mid-nineteenth-century Virginian's home.","narrative":"This small frame cottage in Belroi, Gloucester County, Virginia, is where Dr. Walter Reed was born. His father, Rev. Lemuel Sutton Reed, served the Methodist Gloucester Circuit from 1851 to 1852, and the family lived here because the parsonage was not yet finished. The house is one story with three bays, a gable roof, white weatherboarding and short brick piers. It has one main room with a room above and a shed room at the rear. Reed later headed the commission that showed mosquitoes transmit yellow fever. The cottage also illustrates the modest vernacular dwellings once common in Tidewater Virginia, now rare compared with the great plantation houses. The Medical Society of Virginia restored it in 1927, removing a side addition and rebuilding the front chimney with brick from a nearby house. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities received it in 1968 and carried out further work in 1970, including a new roof.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Early nineteenth-century small vernacular rural dwelling","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked excellent and altered, on its original site; restored in 1927 and 1970 and owned by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.904051-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/28/6809/41680928/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/73002017.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002017/c26d9adc42-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002017/c26d9adc42-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Mytwocents (talk) 05:55, 31 May 2008 (UTC)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walterreedbirthplace.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mytwocents (talk) 05:55, 31 May 2008 (UTC)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walterreedbirthplace.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680928","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed_Birthplace","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713492"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/gloucester-county/reed-walter-birthplace-73002017/"}