{"nrhp_refnum":"75002034","name":"Belle Aire","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"U.S. 11","address_restricted":false,"city":"Salem","county":"Roanoke (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.26370780800005,"lon":-80.01759477299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-04-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Belle Aire is a two-story, L-shaped brick Greek Revival house on a wooded knoll above Lee Highway (Route 11) between Roanoke and Salem in Roanoke County, Virginia. It was built in 1849 by builder Benjamin Deyerle.","why_significant":"The house is described as an outstanding Greek Revival dwelling that shows how popular builders' guides were in the mid-nineteenth century. It also shows how an imaginative local craftsman adapted them, drawing mainly on Asher Benjamin's The Practical House Carpenter while adding his own variations and local Valley touches.","narrative":"Belle Aire is a two-story, L-shaped brick house set on a wooded knoll above Lee Highway between Roanoke and Salem in Roanoke County. Built in 1849 by the local contractor and brick mason Benjamin Deyerle for the landowner Madison Pitzer, it is regarded as an outstanding example of Greek Revival design. The south front has a two-story pedimented portico with fluted Doric columns, stuccoed corner pilasters and original metal downspouts with diamond ornaments. Deyerle drew many of the doorways, window lintels and mantels from Asher Benjamin's 1830 handbook The Practical House Carpenter, but he rarely copied it exactly. He added his own variations and local Valley details, such as the tablets and moldings of the west parlor mantel. Inside, the plan is a single-pile, central-passage block with an open-well stair and paneled wainscoting. The house shows how pattern books shaped rural building in mid-nineteenth-century Virginia and how a skilled craftsman made them his own.","period_of_significance":"1849","architect_builder":"Benjamin Deyerle (builder); Gustavus Sedon probably employed as carpenter","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as in excellent condition, occupied and used as 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 02:51:56.551015-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/55/6832/41683255/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/75002034.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002034/c579210240-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002034/c579210240-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ. M.D.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BELLE_AIRE,_ROANOKE_CITY,_VA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ. M.D.</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BELLE_AIRE,_ROANOKE_CITY,_VA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683255","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Aire","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4883595"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/roanoke/belle-aire-75002034/"}