{"nrhp_refnum":"80002828","name":"Edgecombe Agricultural Works","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Main, Howard, Albemarle, and Walnut Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Tarboro","county":"Edgecombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.90515450700008,"lon":-77.54053054199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-04-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A long, low brick industrial building in the center of a block bounded by Main, Howard, Albemarle and Walnut Streets in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, North Carolina, built soon after the Civil War and now surrounded by later buildings.","why_significant":"It is evidently the oldest surviving industrial building in Tarboro and Edgecombe County, predating the later mill, tobacco and cotton buildings. It was the central building of a complex that repaired and manufactured farm implements, which was crucial to the county's postwar agriculture. The firm is credited with inventing a well-designed cotton planter.","narrative":"Hidden among later structures in Tarboro, this brick building near the railroad at the north of town dates from soon after the Civil War. It has a long, low gable roof, common-bond brick, flat arches over the windows, pilaster strips separating the bays, a corbel cornice and stepped, parapeted gable ends. A lunette in the east gable is ringed by the painted words Edgecombe Agricultural Works. Inside is a large room with heavy timber framing and chamfered posts finished with lambs tongues. The works repaired and manufactured farm implements and is evidently the oldest surviving industrial building in Tarboro and Edgecombe County. A. J. Hines is listed as proprietor in 1872, and by 1877 George Howard owned it, with the Howard family holding it for decades. An 1890 map shows an engine room, machine shop, pattern shop and storage rooms. Farmers came from miles around, and the firm is credited with an unusually good cotton planter. It later became the Edgecombe Machine Shop and is now part of a laundry.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"The complex has been altered in the mid-20th century, but the central building survives and is now part of a laundry.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.365532-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/7177/47717799/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/80002828.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717799","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgecombe_Agricultural_Works","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19461532"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/edgecombe-county/edgecombe-agricultural-works-80002828/"}