{"nrhp_refnum":"82001303","name":"Bernhardt, George Matthias, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S of Rockwell on SR 2361","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rockwell","county":"Rowan County","state":"NC","lat":35.50681501850005,"lon":-80.42807896043598,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-11-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Greek Revival plantation house in a grove of oak trees on a 323-acre tract near Rockwell in Rowan County, North Carolina, erected in the 1850s for George Matthias Bernhardt. The nominated property includes six outbuildings, three of them contemporary with the house.","why_significant":"The house is described as an unusually well-preserved Greek Revival plantation house with a complete and well-crafted architectural program for the county. Its T-shaped plan is the earliest known use of that plan in the county and the only antebellum example there, and the freestanding antebellum plantation office is the only known surviving one in the county. The nomination also ties the house to the Bernhardt family's prominence and to the emerging affluence of the antebellum planter class.","narrative":"Set in a grove of oak trees on a 323-acre tract in Rowan County, North Carolina, the George Matthias Bernhardt House is a Greek Revival plantation house erected in the 1850s. Its weatherboarded exterior is embellished with molded door and window surrounds, cornerblocks and projecting molded eaves, and its interior retains handsome finish, including fluted and channeled mantels and heart pine floors. The house is two stories in its main block, with a one-story rear ell, and its T-shaped plan is the earliest known use of that form in the county, predating its later popularity by nearly thirty years. A freestanding plantation office of weatherboarded frame with Greek Revival trim, the only known surviving antebellum plantation office in the county, stands among the outbuildings. Bernhardt, a planter who was born in 1820 and died in 1885, served as a Justice of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions and one term in the General Assembly. The house is regarded as a specific product of the wealth of the antebellum planter class in Rowan County.","period_of_significance":"1850-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Maintained and preserved by the family; the family occupied the house only intermittently after Bernhardt's death in 1885.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:40.972533-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/36/7220/47722036/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82001303.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722036","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Matthias_Bernhardt_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19866769"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rowan-county/bernhardt-george-matthias-house-82001303/"}