{"nrhp_refnum":"80002860","name":"Cornelius House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SR 1378 and SR 1302","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mooresville","county":"Iredell County","state":"NC","lat":35.62966648400004,"lon":-80.87008771046607,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-11-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A frame plantation house in the Mooresville vicinity of Iredell County, North Carolina, on a knoll above Lake Norman. It was probably built ca. 1820-1830 in a T-shaped tripartite plan with a two-story center and one-story wings.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a rare example of the academic Palladian tripartite plan in the Piedmont and unique in Iredell County. Its Federal interior detailing is remarkably well preserved, though Victorian additions have compromised the exterior massing. It also served as the manor house of a roughly 1,000-acre plantation, later owned by the Cornelius family.","narrative":"Set in a grove on a knoll above Lake Norman, this frame house near Mooresville was probably built between 1820 and 1830. Its T-shaped tripartite plan, with a two-story center block and one-story wings, is rare in the North Carolina Piedmont and unique in Iredell County. The house has a fieldstone foundation and Flemish bond shoulder chimneys. Inside, the original Federal woodwork survives largely intact, including transitional Georgian/Federal mantels, six-panel doors, flush-sheathed walls and a stair with brackets shaped like cresting waves. Victorian additions made by Albertus Cornelius in the 1880s filled the plan out to a square. By the 1840s it was the manor house of Joseph F. Gillespie's plantation of about 1,000 acres, which grew cotton and corn. After years of litigation, Clarence H. Cornelius gained title in 1896, and the family ran a dairy farm here. The house is now vacant and deteriorating, and the nominated 33 acres help preserve its rural setting.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1820 - 1830","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal tripartite plan with transitional Georgian/Federal interior detailing","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"The house is vacant and becoming dilapidated, though its details remain remarkably intact.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.717414-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/29/7180/47718029/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/80002860.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718029","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_House_(Mooresville,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19461151"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/iredell-county/cornelius-house-80002860/"}