{"nrhp_refnum":"79003281","name":"Wilton, Joshua, House","other_names":["Shank House","TKE House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"412 S. Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harrisonburg (Independent City)","county":"Harrisonburg","state":"VA","lat":38.44518520200006,"lon":-78.86948512699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-one-half-story brick Victorian house at 412 South Main Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia, built in 1890 by Joshua Wilton, a local businessman.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the house as one of the Valley's notable examples of late 19th-century Victorian domestic architecture. Its eclectic design reflects the taste, wealth and position of its builder, a prominent Harrisonburg hardware merchant and civic leader. Such showy residences along main streets have become vulnerable to demolition.","narrative":"Located on a generous lawn at 412 South Main Street in Harrisonburg, this brick house was completed in 1890 for Joshua Wilton. A Canadian who arrived in Harrisonburg in 1865, Wilton started a foundry, then opened a hardware store in 1868, and later served as a bank president, hospital trustee and city council member. The two-and-one-half-story house has a multi-gable roof, a three-story octagonal turret, projecting gabled pavilions, bay windows, pointed-arch windows with hood molds, decorative bargeboards and an original slate-shingle roof. Inside, a curved open-well stair, Ionic column openings and ornate mantels reflect the period's taste for display. The house is considered significant as a fine example of Victorian architecture whose eclectic details, drawn from pattern-book elements, express the owner's own preferences. Later used as a fraternity house, it was acquired by owners intending to restore it. A small outbuilding from the same period survives at the rear.","period_of_significance":"1890","architect_builder":"Joshua Wilton (builder)","architectural_style":"Late 19th-century Victorian, eclectic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Marked as unoccupied and in good condition on the form. It was most recently a fraternity house and had been purchased by owners who hoped to restore it; the owners' grant request describes broken windows, a leaking roof and damaged heating and plumbing.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.579406-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/6812/41681204/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/79003281.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003281/adf197b730-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003281/adf197b730-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Strawser","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joshua_Wilton_House_Harrisonburg_VA_Sept_2013.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Strawser</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:Joshua_Wilton_House_Harrisonburg_VA_Sept_2013.JPG"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"04001536","name":"Harrisonburg Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/harrisonburg-downtown-historic-district-04001536/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681204","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Wilton_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15229767"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/harrisonburg/wilton-joshua-house-79003281/"}