{"nrhp_refnum":"78000966","name":"Richmond Hill Plantation","other_names":["Ford Farms","Henry Ford Plantation"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Richmond Hill on Ford Neck Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richmond Hill","county":"Bryan County","state":"GA","lat":31.92459195950005,"lon":-81.27613736219269,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-01-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Engineering","Architecture","Social History","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Richmond Hill Plantation is Henry Ford's winter home and associated outbuildings on the Great Ogeechee River near Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia. The mansion was built in 1936, with a laboratory/rice mill and servants' house on a 60-acre nominated tract.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the site is significant for Henry Ford's work in industry, agriculture, education and social and humanitarian activity. Ford used the estate to pursue an experimental, balanced farming system, chemurgy research, a school and a sawmill and housing program. The laboratory machinery is noted as especially important to industrial and engineering history.","narrative":"Henry Ford built this brick mansion in 1936 as a winter home on the Great Ogeechee River in Bryan County, Georgia. Its salvaged bricks came from the Hermitage Plantation near Savannah, and its two-story portico uses wooden columns of the temple of the winds order. Nearby are a laboratory, also called the old rice mill, which still holds Ford engines and boilers, and a servants' house and laundry. Ford first took interest in the area in 1925 and used his holdings, which grew to more than 85,000 acres, to test a balanced system of farming linked to industry. The estate hosted soybean and plastics research, a sawmill, a tractor trial, a clinic that nearly ended malaria locally, and schools, including one for Black children named for George Washington Carver. Support ended in 1951, after Ford's death in 1947. The nomination describes the house as badly deteriorated and urges its restoration, along with the gardens and oak avenues.","period_of_significance":"1925-1951","architect_builder":"Cletus Bergen","architectural_style":"Eclectic design remotely inspired by Greek Revival, with a Federal-style entrance door and temple of the winds order columns","criteria":[],"status_note":"The form marks the property as unoccupied and vacant, with the house described as much deteriorated, open to the elements and vandals.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.692141-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/78000966.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000966/24d4b8bfcf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000966/24d4b8bfcf-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"David Deiner, Photographer","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richmond_Hill_Plantation,_Ford_Mansion,_East_of_Richmond_Hill_on_Ford_Neck_Road,_Richmond_Hill_vicinity_(Bryan_County,_Georgia).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">David Deiner, Photographer</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richmond_Hill_Plantation,_Ford_Mansion,_East_of_Richmond_Hill_on_Ford_Neck_Road,_Richmond_Hill_vicinity_(Bryan_County,_Georgia).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207144","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107001782"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/bryan-county/richmond-hill-plantation-78000966/"}