{"nrhp_refnum":"75001276","name":"Atkinson-Smith House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"10 mi. E of Smithfield off SR 1007","address_restricted":false,"city":"Smithfield","county":"Johnston County","state":"NC","lat":35.71404004100003,"lon":-78.23778077399999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-06-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame plantation house in the flat farmland of Johnston County, North Carolina, east of Smithfield, built about 1850 for Elijah Atkinson. Outbuildings including a barn and several tobacco barns stand to the rear.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a remarkably unchanged antebellum plantation house of unusual ambition for rural Johnston County. It combines Greek Revival form with lavish ornament that anticipates the Victorian era, and it has a notable curved stair and well-preserved plaster and wood detail. It was later the home of William A. Smith, a prominent Unionist and Reconstruction-era Republican.","narrative":"Set at the end of a long lane amid flat Johnston County farmland, this two-story frame plantation house was built about 1850 for Elijah Atkinson, a planter whose family owned large tracts along the Neuse River. Its form is typical Greek Revival: three bays wide, a central entrance and a shallow hip roof. The ornament is far richer than usual, including a two-tier portico with fluted Doric and Ionic columns, elaborate door surrounds and unusual cornerblocks. Inside, a center hall carries an elaborate plaster ceiling medallion, and a spiral stair rises in a rounded well beside the hall. After Atkinson's death, his widow married William A. Smith, an outspoken Unionist before the Civil War and later a Republican during Reconstruction who served one term in Congress. The house is valued for its ambitious design, its remarkably unaltered condition and this political connection. It remains in the Smith family, with a barn and tobacco barns behind it.","period_of_significance":"Ca. 1850","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as remarkably unchanged and still owned by descendants of William A. Smith; the form marks the property as occupied and a private residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.287027-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/94/7209/47720994/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/75001276.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720994","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson-Smith_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19460308"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/johnston-county/atkinson-smith-house-75001276/"}