{"nrhp_refnum":"82003428","name":"Scotch Hall","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Merry Hill on SR 1511","address_restricted":false,"city":"Merry Hill","county":"Bertie County","state":"NC","lat":35.97519518000004,"lon":-76.70837526901892,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-04-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Scotch Hall is a large two-and-a-half story frame plantation house built about 1838 on a bluff overlooking Batchelors Bay and the Albemarle Sound, east of Merry Hill in Bertie County, North Carolina. It was built by George Washington Capehart.","why_significant":"The nomination ties the house to the Capehart family, whose holdings of about 8,000 acres worked by nearly 300 slaves made up the largest plantation in Bertie County and one of the largest in the state. It also served as the setting for the 1851 novel Bertie. Architecturally, it is a largely unchanged example of a vernacular house from the transition between the Federal and Greek Revival styles, with a center-hall, double-pile plan.","narrative":"Overlooking Batchelors Bay and the Albemarle Sound from a bluff in Bertie County, Scotch Hall is a five-bay, two-and-a-half story frame house built about 1838 for planter George Washington Capehart. It has a center-hall plan, beaded siding, paired brick chimneys at each end, and porches with Tuscan columns. Only the simple mantels show Greek Revival influence, so the house reflects the lasting strength of the Federal style in rural North Carolina. The site was settled earlier, and a small brick house thought to date from the 1700s once stood in the front yard. The Capeharts ran one of the state's largest antebellum plantations, with thousands of acres and hundreds of enslaved workers, and also operated a fishery. A tutor to the Capehart children wrote the 1851 novel Bertie, set at the house. Family furniture and portraits remain inside, and the possibility of archeological remains adds to its significance.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Vernacular Federal-to-Greek Revival transitional","criteria":["A","B","C","D"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in excellent condition, and in use as a private residence; altered with mid-1960s additions but on its original site.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:58.321471-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/34/7190/47719034/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003428.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719034","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_Hall","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18157845"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/bertie-county/scotch-hall-82003428/"}