{"nrhp_refnum":"78003146","name":"Franklin and Armfield Office","other_names":["1315 Duke Street Apartments"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1315 Duke St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Alexandria (Independent City)","county":"Alexandria","state":"VA","lat":38.803914141000064,"lon":-77.05450390299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-06-02","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1978-06-02","areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story, L-shaped gray-painted brick house at 1315 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, built between 1810 and 1820 by Robert Young. It later served as the headquarters of the Franklin and Armfield slave-trading firm.","why_significant":"From 1828 to 1836 the house was the headquarters of Franklin and Armfield, described as the most eminent slave-trading firm in the South, and the residence of partner John Armfield. Slave trading continued on the premises until 1861, and the house held captured Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. It is the only known surviving structure in Virginia associated with the firm during its operation, apart from the Isaac Franklin Plantation in Tennessee.","narrative":"Built between 1810 and 1820 by Brigadier General Robert Young, this three-story brick house on Duke Street in Alexandria became the base of the largest slave-trading operation in the antebellum South. Franklin and Armfield leased and later purchased it in 1828. The main block served as the firm's office and John Armfield's home, while the rear wing housed enslaved people at night behind grated windows, and walled pens flanked the house. Later traders used it until Union troops took Alexandria in 1861, and Confederate prisoners were held there during the war. In the 1870s Thomas Swann removed the pens, added a frame third story to the rear wing, and replaced the gable roof of the main block with a Mansard roof. The L-shaped Adamesque building has been divided into apartments, but its forbidding appearance survives. It is valued as a rare physical link to the firm's commerce in human beings.","period_of_significance":"1828-61","architect_builder":"Robert Young","architectural_style":"Adamesque","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and used as apartments (seven units), in fair condition, with exterior and interior alterations; owners had expressed interest in restoring it.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.093771-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/75/6789/41678975/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/78003146_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003146/0877041c96-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003146/0877041c96-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Dmadeo","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin-armfield-office.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Dmadeo</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:Franklin-armfield-office.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678975","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_and_Armfield_Office","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1445302"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/alexandria/franklin-and-armfield-office-78003146/"}