{"nrhp_refnum":"77000992","name":"Richmond Hill House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"45 Richmond Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheville","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.61134085900005,"lon":-82.58032936499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-08-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Richmond Hill is a large frame Queen Anne style house on a hilltop west of Asheville across the French Broad River in Buncombe County, North Carolina, built in 1889-1890 as a country estate residence.","why_significant":"The nomination describes it as one of the chief nineteenth century landmarks of Asheville and a large, impressive, little-altered frame house of restrained, classicizing Queen Anne style. It is tied to Richmond Pearson, a congressman and diplomat, and was designed by James G. Hill, a former supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury. The original plans survive.","narrative":"Richmond Hill is a frame house of restrained Queen Anne style on a hilltop west of Asheville, across the French Broad River, built in 1889-1890. Its asymmetrical plan, hipped slate roof, tower, shingled gables, and porte cochere are combined with Neoclassical ornament and interior mantels. The house was designed by James G. Hill, a former supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury, for Richmond Pearson, a North Carolina congressman who later served as a diplomat to Persia and Greece. Pearson's family held the estate for decades, and his son Thomas opened the house as a museum in 1953. The house is regarded as one of the chief nineteenth century landmarks of Asheville and is notable for its largely original hardware, lighting, wiring, and fixtures, as well as its original plans. Its significance also rests on its association with Pearson's political and diplomatic career.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"James G. Hill (architect)","architectural_style":"Queen Anne","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the Western North Carolina Baptist Retirement Home after a 1974 sale; the nomination states that plans for the future of the house are uncertain.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.228406-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/42/7192/47719242/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/77000992.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000992/6904ac7a40-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000992/6904ac7a40-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"rossograph","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richnond_Hill_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">rossograph</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:Richnond_Hill_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719242","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Hill_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7330878"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/richmond-hill-house-77000992/"}