{"nrhp_refnum":"84003082","name":"Belcher Family Homestead and Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"NY 38","address_restricted":false,"city":"Berkshire","county":"Tioga County","state":"NY","lat":42.28355177950007,"lon":-76.1876184367444,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Agriculture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 199-acre working farm on Route 38 about one mile south of the hamlet of Berkshire, Tioga County, New York, with buildings dating from c. 1815 to the late 1800s, including two farmhouses and two barns.","why_significant":"The farm contains intact examples of domestic and farm architecture spanning roughly 1815 to 1900. The c. 1815 Federal house is believed to be the oldest surviving building in the township, and the c. 1850 house is one of two local vernacular examples of Gothic Revival influence. The barns show the shift from grain and livestock production to dairying after rail service arrived in 1869.","narrative":"This 199-acre farm on Route 38, about a mile south of Berkshire hamlet, is still worked today and holds buildings from several periods of local farming history. The earliest is a one-and-a-half-story clapboard house of about 1815, probably built by original settler Elijah Belcher, who arrived in 1805. It is believed to be the oldest surviving building in the township and reflects New England building traditions. His son, Aaron Putnam Belcher, probably built the larger c. 1850 farmhouse, a two-story clapboard structure with a steep roof and a finely detailed Carpenter Gothic porch. Nearby are an unaltered mid-nineteenth century board-and-batten barn and a late nineteenth century gambrel-roofed dairy barn with a domed silo. Together the buildings trace the move from grain and livestock production to dairying for urban milk markets after rail service reached Berkshire in 1869. The farm was listed as a compact, continuous record of the town's agricultural development.","period_of_significance":"c. 1815 to 1900","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular Federal (c. 1815 house); Gothic Revival influence with Carpenter Gothic porch (c. 1850 house)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still a working farm; the original c. 1815 house is now used for farm storage. Condition is listed as good.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.254618-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/84003082.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003082/1eef4905b2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003082/1eef4905b2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Delphinium1","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Belcher_Family_Homestead_and_Farm.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Delphinium1</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:Belcher_Family_Homestead_and_Farm.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315110","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belcher_Family_Homestead_and_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4882055"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/tioga-county/belcher-family-homestead-and-farm-84003082/"}