{"nrhp_refnum":"74001337","name":"Powell-Trollinger Lime Kilns","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"S of Catawba","address_restricted":false,"city":"Catawba","county":"Catawba County","state":"NC","lat":35.65327251100007,"lon":-81.06409382199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-11-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A group of nineteenth-century stone lime kilns built into a hillside on a pine forest farm south of Catawba, Catawba County, North Carolina. Three kilns remain, one of them destroyed and one damaged, and they began operating soon after the Civil War under Dr. Avery M. Powell.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the kilns as a rare, still-impressive survivor of a small local industry typical of the state's nineteenth-century industrial character. They were part of a lime-producing operation started by Dr. Avery M. Powell and later run by Moses Trollinger and his widow. Lime was a key ingredient in plasters and mortars and was mostly used locally.","narrative":"Three stone lime kilns, built into a hillside on a pine forest farm south of Catawba, record a small industry of the post-Civil War South. Dr. Avery M. Powell, a physician, planter and textile manufacturer, began the lime operation soon after 1865. Wagons could drive to circular openings at the top, where layers of cord wood and limestone were loaded. Burned lime was removed through small openings at the base of a stone wall twenty or thirty feet high. An 1870 census showed 600 tons of limestone yielding lime and consuming 1,200 cords of wood a year. Moses Trollinger bought the kilns in 1877, and his widow Susan operated them into the 1890s. One kiln was reported in use as late as 1916. Today the center kiln is intact, one is damaged, and one has been destroyed by people removing stone. The kilns are listed as a rare surviving example of the small local lime-making enterprises that supplied builders before railroads and larger plants changed the trade.","period_of_significance":"19th Century","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as fair and altered; the center kiln is intact, the left one damaged and the right one destroyed by scavengers seeking stone. Listed as unoccupied.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.584278-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/25/7195/47719525/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/74001337.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719525","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell%E2%80%93Trollinger_Lime_Kilns","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18156957"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/catawba-county/powell-trollinger-lime-kilns-74001337/"}