{"nrhp_refnum":"84000042","name":"Jerdone Castle","other_names":["VHLC File No.54-45"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Bumpas","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bumpas","county":"Louisa County","state":"VA","lat":38.00746013050005,"lon":-77.74793214974196,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-10-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Jerdone Castle is a frame residence on a rise above Lake Anna (originally Elk Creek) near Bumpass in Louisa County, Virginia. It combines a 1½-story section built about 1742-52 by Francis Jerdone with a larger two-story Italianate addition of 1858.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant for placing mid-18th-century vernacular building practice beside a mid-19th-century Picturesque addition. It is also tied to novelist Ellen Glasgow, who spent childhood summers there and first began to write on the grounds. The form also notes the property's link to Francis Jerdone, a Scottish merchant and mill and forge operator.","narrative":"Jerdone Castle is a two-part frame house overlooking Lake Anna in Louisa County, Virginia. The older section, a 1½-story building with beaded weatherboard and a Flemish-bond brick foundation, was erected between 1742 and 1752 by Francis Jerdone, a Scottish-born merchant who ran stores, mills and a forge. Its paneled parlor and built-in cupboards reflect his prosperity. In 1858 General Clayton Coleman added a larger two-story Italianate wing with a bracketed cornice, a cupola, double parlors and plaster ceiling medallions, probably drawn from popular builders' guides and built by a local craftsman. The result is an asymmetrical house showing two eras side by side. The property is also notable for Ellen Glasgow, the Virginia novelist, whose family summered there from 1879 to 1887. She wrote that she first composed verse beneath an elm on the grounds. A ca. 1830 schoolhouse and the Jerdone family cemetery also survive within the roughly fifteen-acre boundary.","period_of_significance":"1700-1899 (specific dates ca. 1742-52, 1858)","architect_builder":"Builder/architect unknown; original section built by Francis Jerdone, 1858 addition built by Clayton Coleman (likely a local builder)","architectural_style":"Italianate (1858 section) with 18th-century central Virginia vernacular frame (original section)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as a private residence; condition listed as fair. The surviving schoolhouse outbuilding is in an advanced state of deterioration, and the family cemetery is overgrown and vandalized.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.584499-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/99/6816/41681699/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/84000042.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000042/693edb6f26-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84000042/693edb6f26-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jkblume","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JCastle.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jkblume</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JCastle.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681699","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerdone_Castle","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6180620"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/louisa-county/jerdone-castle-84000042/"}