{"nrhp_refnum":"76001431","name":"White, Walter C., Estate","other_names":["Circle W Farm","Hawken School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Mayfield Heights at U.S. 322 and County Line Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mayfield Heights","county":"Geauga County","state":"OH","lat":41.52640918900005,"lon":-81.38698023265552,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-10-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Landscape Architecture","Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A group of estate buildings, known as Circle W Farm, on about 125 acres of the Hawken School property near Mayfield Heights and Gates Mills in Chester Township, Geauga County, Ohio. It was begun in 1917 for Walter C. White and designed by Walker & Weeks.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a relatively complete example of the self-contained country estates common in the early 20th century. It was designed as a working farm with formal gardens and polo fields, and it shows the interplay of Neo-Classic Revival formality and informal country living. It is also tied to Walter C. White, an early leader in the automotive industry.","narrative":"Circle W Farm is a group of estate buildings in Chester Township, Geauga County, Ohio, now part of the Hawken School campus. Walter C. White, an early leader in the automotive industry, began the estate in 1917, and work continued until his death in 1929. Walker & Weeks, the Cleveland architects, designed the whole layout. Stonemason George Brown of Gates Mills built the masonry. The surviving core includes a Georgian Revival frame mansion with a pillared portico, a stone arch bridge, terraced gardens, a stuccoed polo stable with attached dwellings, a lodge, a farmhouse, tenant cottages and a stone pump house. A large dairy barn complex with tile silos was also part of the nominated group. The estate was valued as a fairly complete example of the self-contained country estates of the early twentieth century, planned as a working farm with fields, orchards, gardens and polo fields. The school bought it in 1960, built a modern building and has kept the older buildings. The dairy barns burned in 1977.","period_of_significance":"1917-1929","architect_builder":"Walker & Weeks; George Brown","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival main residence; Neo-Classic Revival estate layout","criteria":[],"status_note":"Hawken School acquired the property in 1960 and maintains the original buildings. The dairy barns were destroyed by fire in April 1977, after listing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.056992-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/76001431.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001431/ea9a2fb9ed-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001431/ea9a2fb9ed-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jf1123581321","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Walter_C_white_estate_by_Joseph_Frost.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jf1123581321</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:Walter_C_white_estate_by_Joseph_Frost.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988660","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138340015"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/geauga-county/white-walter-c-estate-76001431/"}