{"nrhp_refnum":"79001735","name":"Beaver Dam Plantation House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SE of Davidson on NC 73","address_restricted":false,"city":"Davidson","county":"Mecklenburg County","state":"NC","lat":35.475614386000075,"lon":-80.81770180799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-03-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame plantation house on a knoll above Beaver Dam Creek, southeast of Davidson on NC 73 in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. It is thought to have been completed in September 1829 for William Lee Davidson, Jr.","why_significant":"The house is tied to the founding of Davidson College: a committee of the Concord Presbytery met here in April 1835 and chose land belonging to William Lee Davidson, Jr. for the school. It was also the seat of a prominent planter family and is one of the oldest surviving Davidson-associated houses in the county.","narrative":"Beaver Dam is a two-story, single-pile frame plantation house set on a knoll overlooking Beaver Dam Creek southeast of Davidson. An inscription in a chimney indicates it was finished in September 1829 for William Lee Davidson, Jr., son of Revolutionary general William Lee Davidson. The house follows a plan typical of small Piedmont planters, with an asymmetrical four-bay front, Flemish bond end chimneys, nine-over-nine sash and simple Federal interior woodwork, including a fluted dining room mantel. In April 1835 a Concord Presbytery committee met here and selected a 469-acre tract belonging to Davidson for a new manual labor school, later named Davidson College in honor of his father. Davidson served as an original trustee and officer of the college. Later owners included Joseph Patterson, Rufus Barringer and the Hovis family. The property, once more than a square mile, now covers about 8.7 acres, and the house was extensively renovated in the 1970s.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Occupied as a private residence, in good condition but heavily renovated by the present owner after years as a rental and periods of vacancy.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:55.832119-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/60/7213/47721360/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/79001735.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001735/834f8d7774-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001735/834f8d7774-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"RoxylovesHistory","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beaver_Dam_House,_Davidson,_NC.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">RoxylovesHistory</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:Beaver_Dam_House,_Davidson,_NC.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721360","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Dam_Plantation_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19460425"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/mecklenburg-county/beaver-dam-plantation-house-79001735/"}