{"nrhp_refnum":"82003508","name":"Rankin-Sherrill House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NC 801","address_restricted":false,"city":"Mt. Ulla","county":"Rowan County","state":"NC","lat":35.657676636000076,"lon":-80.72780140099997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-09-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story brick house with a hipped roof on the south side of N.C. 801 in the village of Mt. Ulla, Rowan County, North Carolina, built in the mid-1850s for Dr. Samuel D. Rankin.","why_significant":"The house is one of the very few brick plantation seats built in antebellum Rowan County and a vernacular Greek Revival dwelling with intact, well-crafted woodwork. It is tied to Dr. Rankin, a physician, planter and chairman of the Back Creek Church building committee, and to the Sherrill family, who have owned it since 1886. The nomination links it to the planter class's emerging wealth and to Scotch-Irish Presbyterian traditions.","narrative":"Set in a grove of tall oak trees on N.C. 801 in Mt. Ulla, this two-story brick house was built in the mid-1850s for Dr. Samuel D. Rankin, a physician, planter and lay leader at Back Creek Presbyterian Church. He chaired the committee that built the church in 1856-1857, and the house is believed to date from the same period. The brick is laid in one-to-four bond under a low hipped roof, and the plan is a reverse L with a one-story kitchen ell. Inside, a center stair hall is flanked by rooms with simple mantels and plain surrounds topped with peaked lintels. After Rankin died in 1860, his family stayed on until 1886, when the property was sold to A. E. Sherrill. Only two families have owned it since. It is recognized as one of very few brick plantation houses in antebellum Rowan County, with largely intact vernacular Greek Revival woodwork.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Greek Revival","criteria":["A","B","C"],"status_note":"Occupied as a private residence; the form notes alterations such as a porch of early twentieth-century date and a kitchen created in the 1950s by enclosing part of a rear porch.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.452377-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/46/7220/47722046/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/82003508.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003508/862c58218c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003508/862c58218c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ncpappy","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2012-09-28_17-38-19_673_rankin_sherrill.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_17-38-19_673_rankin_sherrill.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722046","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankin%E2%80%93Sherrill_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19987738"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rowan-county/rankin-sherrill-house-82003508/"}