{"nrhp_refnum":"78003025","name":"Windsor Shades","other_names":["Ruffin's Ferry","Waterville"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SW of Sweet Hall off VA 30","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sweet Hall","county":"King William County","state":"VA","lat":37.571133017500046,"lon":-76.90997144077075,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-05-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Windsor Shades, also called Waterville or Ruffin's Ferry, is a story-and-a-half, gambrel-roofed frame planter's house on the Pamunkey River near Sweet Hall in King William County, Virginia, built around the middle of the eighteenth century.","why_significant":"The nomination cites its high-quality eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century interiors and its massive Flemish-bond brick chimneys, described as a famous example of colonial masonry. It is also tied to the prominent Chamberlayne family and to a heavily traveled ferry that operated there for most of the eighteenth century.","narrative":"Windsor Shades, also known as Waterville and Ruffin's Ferry, is a Tidewater planter's house beside the Pamunkey River in King William County, Virginia. The story-and-a-half frame dwelling has a gambrel roof, beaded weatherboards, a low English-bond brick basement, and a central-passage, double-pile plan. Its most striking features are the large Flemish-bond brick chimneys at each end, with the east pair rising through two stories of pent closets. Inside, the house keeps eighteenth-century paneling and early nineteenth-century mantels and trim. The house was probably built around the middle of the eighteenth century, possibly by Thomas Chamberlayne. His son Edward Pye Chamberlayne owned the property in the 1780s and kept an account book for the ferry that operated nearby. That ferry, close to New Kent Court House, was heavily used through most of the century. The house was valued for its architecture, its little-altered condition, and its Chamberlayne family and ferry associations. About fourteen acres are included.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Tidewater planter's house","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, privately owned, in good condition; described as little altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.578261-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/6814/41681462/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/78003025.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003025/9e888a851b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003025/9e888a851b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Powellcl4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Windsorshades.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Powellcl4</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:Windsorshades.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681462","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Shades","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8024702"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/king-william-county/windsor-shades-78003025/"}