{"nrhp_refnum":"77001002","name":"Wynne's Folly","other_names":["Clarke House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"W of Engelhard on U.S. 264","address_restricted":false,"city":"Engelhard","county":"Hyde County","state":"NC","lat":35.50044888600007,"lon":-76.02769650999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-12-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame Greek Revival plantation house near Engelhard in Hyde County, North Carolina, believed to have been built in the late 1840s for planter Richard Inge Wynne.","why_significant":"It is described as the most ambitious of the surviving antebellum houses in sparsely settled Hyde County. Its simple, spacious form is enriched by delicate classical ornament, including anthemion motifs. The nomination also notes its association with planter Richard Wynne and later with Dr. Edward Clarke, a prominent local physician, and the Clarke family.","narrative":"Wynne's Folly is a two-story frame plantation house west of Engelhard in Hyde County, North Carolina, built in the late 1840s for Richard Inge Wynne. Tradition holds that he built it to impress a young woman who then married someone else, which gave the house its nickname. The building is nearly cubical, five bays wide and five deep, measuring 40 by 40 feet, with a shallow pyramidal roof and paired interior end chimneys. Heavy corner pilasters, a wide frieze and a Doric entrance emphasize its boxy mass. Inside, intersecting halls form a T-shaped plan, with an arch, marbleized baseboards and delicate anthemion carving on the stair brackets and mantels. In 1850 Wynne was among the county's leading planters, though he left the area by 1860. Dr. Edward Clarke, a noted surgeon, bought the property in 1882, and his family has owned it since. It is valued as the most ambitious surviving antebellum house in the county.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Greek Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Marked unoccupied and in good condition; the porches are missing and the walls are covered with asbestos shingles.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.092371-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7209/47720904/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/77001002.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001002/6ccc32711e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77001002/6ccc32711e-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wynne%27s_Folly.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wynne%27s_Folly.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47720904","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynne%27s_Folly","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18749726"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/hyde-county/wynnes-folly-77001002/"}