{"nrhp_refnum":"84001156","name":"Champion-McGarrah Plantation","other_names":["Merritt Farm"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Off GA 30","address_restricted":false,"city":"Friendship","county":"Marion County","state":"GA","lat":32.16249963550004,"lon":-84.45315220818911,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-06-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An antebellum cotton and corn plantation core in the vicinity of Friendship, Marion County, Georgia, with a one-story Greek Revival frame main house built around 1840, seven frame tenant houses and various farm outbuildings.","why_significant":"The main house is a good example of a simple rural Georgia plantation home reflecting the shift from the dogtrot to a square, central-hall plan, with Greek Revival details. The surviving tenant houses and outbuildings are a relatively rare group documenting nineteenth-century plantation building types and techniques. It is also one of the oldest plantations in an area opened for settlement in 1827.","narrative":"Near Friendship in Marion County, Georgia, this plantation preserves the original core of an antebellum farm. Its centerpiece is a one-story, wood-framed Greek Revival house built around 1840, with a central hall, a recessed front porch with simple wooden columns, and a front door framed by sidelights and a transom. Two small front bedrooms, reached only from the porch, were known as travellers rooms. The house reflects the move from the open-breezeway dogtrot to a square, central-hall plan. Across the road stand seven frame tenant houses built between 1870 and 1920, along with barns, smokehouses, cribs and sheds, some dating to antebellum times. Together they document how a Georgia cotton and corn plantation operated, at its peak across 1,300 acres. George M. Champion, the builder and original owner, helped move the county seat to Buena Vista and served as a local justice. After his death in 1871 the farm passed to his grandson Moses McGarrah, and in 1913 to the Merritt family.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1840-1920","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in good condition and used for agriculture and as a private residence; no major changes have been made, though the breezeway has been enclosed and some fireplaces closed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.007304-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/84001156.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001156/29474ac568-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84001156/29474ac568-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Rivers Langley; SaveRivers","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Champion-McGarrah_Plantation_(NRHP)_Friendship,_GA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Rivers Langley; SaveRivers</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:Champion-McGarrah_Plantation_(NRHP)_Friendship,_GA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93208891","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q106999475"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/marion-county/champion-mcgarrah-plantation-84001156/"}