{"nrhp_refnum":"82003504","name":"Wood Grove","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"E of Bear Poplar on SR 1743","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bear Poplar","county":"Rowan County","state":"NC","lat":35.68175518400005,"lon":-80.6729880619093,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-09-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Wood Grove is a two-story-with-attic brick Federal-style plantation house on the east side of SR 1743 near Bear Poplar in western Rowan County, North Carolina, built in the late 1820s for Abel Cowan, with a brick rear shed and an early twentieth-century frame kitchen ell.","why_significant":"The nomination calls the house of state-wide architectural and historical significance as one of a small group of surviving Federal-period brick houses in Piedmont North Carolina, with intact Quaker-plan interior woodwork. It was photographed in 1938 by Frances Benjamin Johnston for the Carnegie Survey of Architecture in the South. It is also the ancestral seat of the prominent Cowan and Krider families.","narrative":"Wood Grove is a small brick plantation house of the Federal period in rural western Rowan County. Local tradition credits Captain Thomas Cowan with building it in the eighteenth century, but the architectural detail points to Abel Cowan, a prominent planter, who acquired the land in 1825 and most likely built the house in the late 1820s. The two-story main block follows the Quaker plan and keeps its original interior woodwork, including reeded and fluted mantels, sheathed wainscot and an open-string stair. Brickwork varies from fine Flemish bond at the west chimney to more random bonds elsewhere. A rear brick shed and a later frame kitchen ell were added. Frances Benjamin Johnston photographed the house in 1938 for the Carnegie Survey of Architecture in the South. It is also valued as the seat of the Cowan and Krider families, whose members were leaders in the farming, church and civic life of Rowan County. The surrounding pasture and cropland remain, though no outbuildings survive.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Federal (Quaker Plan)","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied private residence and agricultural property in fair condition; the form says the last family occupant only recently vacated the house, and no outbuildings survive.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.33656-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/32/7220/47722032/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003504.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003504/ccff5e5e3f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003504/ccff5e5e3f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ncpappy","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2012-09-28_17-58-34_16_wood_grove.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ncpappy</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2012-09-28_17-58-34_16_wood_grove.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722032","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Grove","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24436270"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rowan-county/wood-grove-82003504/"}