{"nrhp_refnum":"79003098","name":"McGavock Family Cemetery","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"E of Fort Chiswell off I-81","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fort Chiswell","county":"Wythe County","state":"VA","lat":36.947638684000026,"lon":-80.92477860099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-06-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Art","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small family cemetery on a hill above the McGavock family mansion at Fort Chiswell, Wythe County, Virginia, containing about fifteen carved sandstone gravestones from the early 19th century plus later 19th-century marble monuments.","why_significant":"The cemetery is noted for its collection of 19th-century funerary art, including Germanic-style gravestones attributed to Laurence Krone, the only ones of their type found in a family burying ground. It is also significant for its association with a prominent Southwest Virginia pioneer family, the McGavocks.","narrative":"Set on a hill above the McGavock family mansion at Fort Chiswell, this small family cemetery in Wythe County holds about fifteen well-preserved sandstone gravestones in the Germanic tradition. Attributed to the carver Laurence Krone, the stones have rounded shoulders, a three-quarter disc at the top, and different designs on each face, including tulips, ferns, sunflowers, pinwheels and reeded borders. Death dates run from 1812 to the late 1830s, but the matching design suggests the stones were ordered together before 1840. Brothers Joseph Cloyd McGavock and Stephen M. McGavock commissioned them for their father, grandfather and other relatives while building the nearby brick Greek Revival mansion. Later members of the family were buried beneath large marble obelisks, an urn-topped pier and a marble arch, all inside an iron fence. The cemetery was listed for its funerary art, including the only Germanic stones known in a family burying ground, and for its link to a prominent pioneer family. Burials continue there today.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1812-present","architect_builder":"Laurence Krone (carver of several stones)","architectural_style":"Germanic gravestone style (stones attributed to Laurence Krone); late 19th-century funerary monuments","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked excellent; the cemetery remains in use for burials.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.487149-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/35/6842/41684235/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/79003098.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003098/b28732a8af-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003098/b28732a8af-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"IxieVerns","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:McGavock_Family_Cemetery.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">IxieVerns</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:McGavock_Family_Cemetery.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41684235","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGavock_Family_Cemetery","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15252534"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/wythe-county/mcgavock-family-cemetery-79003098/"}