{"nrhp_refnum":"80002898","name":"Boxwoods, The","other_names":["Rural Retreat"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Penn Lane","address_restricted":false,"city":"Madison","county":"Rockingham County","state":"NC","lat":36.38220835750005,"lon":-79.96261427948545,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-05-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A substantial Federal-style brick plantation house on a site overlooking the Dan River valley in Madison, Rockingham County, North Carolina, built around 1815 by Randall Duke Scales, with a group of historic outbuildings.","why_significant":"The house is a notable example of Federal-style brick architecture reflecting Virginia influence in the tobacco counties along the state line, with later additions that result from continuous ownership. It is also tied to Randall Duke Scales, founder of Madison, and to the Penn family, who have been active in local business since the early twentieth century.","narrative":"Overlooking the Dan River valley in Madison, North Carolina, this brick plantation house was built around 1815 by Randall Duke Scales, the founder of the town. The five-bay Federal-style main block has Flemish bond brick on its north and south walls, double gable-end chimneys, and a center-hall plan two rooms deep. A mid-nineteenth century lattice porch fronts the north side, and interior woodwork spans the early nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Outbuildings include an early double-pen kitchen, a brick smokehouse, horse barns, a well house and small cabins. The name comes from the large collection of boxwoods that John D. Watkins and his wife brought from Virginia in the late 1840s; the property had earlier been called Rural Retreat. Since 1903 the house has belonged to the Penn family, whose members helped build the Gem-Dandy garter company. It is valued for its architecture, its link to Scales, and its place among the area's largest plantations.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Randall Duke Scales (builder)","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Occupied private residence in good use; the owner's widow still lived there at the time of nomination.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.981114-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/84/7219/47721984/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/80002898.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002898/d1972d7ad8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002898/d1972d7ad8-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boxwoods_driveway.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boxwoods_driveway.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47721984","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxwoods","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19868325"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rockingham-county/boxwoods-the-80002898/"}