{"nrhp_refnum":"82004543","name":"Alexander, James, House","other_names":["Alexander-Long House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Spottswood on VA 671","address_restricted":false,"city":"Spottswood","county":"Augusta County","state":"VA","lat":37.96287309050007,"lon":-79.20313612654388,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-09-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick farmhouse and limestone springhouse on Poor Creek near Spottswood, Augusta County, Virginia, built about 1827 as part of a farmstead on a 55-acre nominated tract.","why_significant":"The nomination calls the house and springhouse a significant pair of early vernacular farm buildings that show Pennsylvania-derived, central European building forms reaching the Valley of Virginia. The house combines a two-level bank form with Georgian planning ideas and Federal woodwork, and has an unusual double-pile hall-and-parlor plan. The springhouse has a distinctive exterior fireplace, a feature found in only a few Valley examples.","narrative":"Near Spottswood in Augusta County, Virginia, a brick farmhouse and a limestone springhouse sit along Poor Creek at the headwaters of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. The house, dated by tax records to about 1827, was built for James Alexander, whose family had come from Ireland by way of Pennsylvania. Its two-level bank form, with service rooms below and living rooms above, descends from central European building traditions carried through Pennsylvania. The brick shell has Flemish-bond walls and a molded cornice, and the main rooms keep Federal mantels, one matching a plate from Owen Biddle's pattern book. The double-pile hall-and-parlor plan was unusual for its time. The springhouse is built into a bank against the spring and has an exterior fireplace, a rare feature in the Valley. A frame barn, smokehouse and livestock buildings from the late 19th and 20th centuries complete the farmstead. The house was being restored when the property was listed.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular mid-Atlantic bank form with Federal detailing and Georgian-influenced plan","criteria":[],"status_note":"The main house was being restored at the time of the nomination; the springhouse was sound but in need of repair.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.961344-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/44/6796/41679644/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/82004543.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004543/728245e523-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82004543/728245e523-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Philip N. Wheeler","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Alexander_house_front_2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Philip N. Wheeler</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:James_Alexander_house_front_2.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679644","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alexander_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712615"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/augusta-county/alexander-james-house-82004543/"}