{"nrhp_refnum":"83001914","name":"Knox Farm Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Knox and Amity Hill Rds.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cleveland","county":"Rowan County","state":"NC","lat":35.72273037250005,"lon":-80.7479566253112,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-04-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural agricultural historic district of about 33 buildings on roughly 890 acres near Cleveland in western Rowan County, North Carolina, including Knox Chapel Methodist Church. Buildings range from late eighteenth-century log structures to 1970s dairy barns.","why_significant":"The district shows continuous occupation and farming by the Knox family since the mid-eighteenth century, tracing a shift from subsistence to self-sufficiency to modern dairy agri-business. It is also tied to a documented family history and, indirectly, to President James K. Polk, whose mother Jane Knox was born here in 1775.","narrative":"Knox Farm is a working farm of about 890 acres in western Rowan County, North Carolina, with some thirty-three buildings. Its oldest structure, a log spring house, dates from the late eighteenth century. Log cribs, a smokehouse and barns follow, along with a Greek Revival farmhouse built in 1854-1856 by James Graham for Robert Knox. The mule barn of 1916 and the dairy buildings of 1936 onward show how farming changed over time. The farm was reportedly built largely from logs and sawn timber grown on the family's own land. Knox Chapel Methodist Church, on land deeded in 1888, is also part of the district. The district was listed because the same family has farmed here since immigrant John Knox acquired the core of the land in the mid-eighteenth century. The buildings record a move from subsistence farming to self-sufficiency and then to a prominent modern dairy. The farm was also the birthplace of Jane Knox, mother of President James K. Polk.","period_of_significance":"1700-1799, 1800-1899, 1900-","architect_builder":"James Graham","architectural_style":"Vernacular Greek Revival (farm seat); vernacular log and frame farm buildings","criteria":["A","B"],"status_note":"Farm in continuing use as a dairy operation; some log buildings, such as the smokehouse and Barn I, are deteriorated. The 1856 house survives largely intact.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:57.725187-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/7220/47722072/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/83001914.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722072","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knox_Farm_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19864668"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rowan-county/knox-farm-historic-district-83001914/"}