{"nrhp_refnum":"73002213","name":"Harrison, Thomas, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"30 W. Bruce St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harrisonburg (Independent City)","county":"Harrisonburg","state":"VA","lat":38.44761888100004,"lon":-78.86952814099999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-07-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-a-half-story coursed rubble limestone house at 30 West Bruce Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia, built about 1750 by Thomas Harrison and now used as offices.","why_significant":"It is the oldest house in Harrisonburg and was built by the man regarded as the town's founder, who laid out the original town and helped make it the Rockingham County seat in 1780. It hosted the first courts held in the town and early Methodist services and a 1794 conference. It is also a rare surviving example of early stone vernacular construction in the Valley of Virginia.","narrative":"Built around 1750 over a spring, this small limestone house at 30 West Bruce Street is the oldest house in Harrisonburg. Thomas Harrison, regarded as the town's founder, owned more than a thousand acres around it and laid out the original town on that land. He also helped have Harrisonburg made the Rockingham County seat in 1780, and the house hosted the town's first courts. Bishop Asbury, a pioneer Methodist leader, visited often and held some of the county's first Methodist services here, and a Methodist-Episcopal conference met in the house in 1794. The dwelling is two bays wide and one-and-a-half stories high, with coursed rubble limestone walls, flat window arches, pine architraves and corner fireplaces. A rare gable entrance is now hidden by later construction, and a stone passage links it to a nineteenth century brick building. The house stayed in the Harrison family until 1870 and is now used as offices.","period_of_significance":"18th Century","architect_builder":"Thomas Harrison (builder)","architectural_style":"Eighteenth century Shenandoah Valley vernacular","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good condition, altered, on its original site, and now used as offices.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.659699-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/12/6812/41681212/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/73002213.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002213/186859f7fc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73002213/186859f7fc-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Strawser","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Harrison_House_Harrisonburg_VA_Sept_2013.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Strawser</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:Thomas_Harrison_House_Harrisonburg_VA_Sept_2013.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"04001536","name":"Harrisonburg Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/harrisonburg-downtown-historic-district-04001536/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681212","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harrison_House_(Harrisonburg,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7790459"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/harrisonburg/harrison-thomas-house-73002213/"}