{"nrhp_refnum":"84003545","name":"Benton","other_names":["Spring Hill"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 774","address_restricted":false,"city":"Middleburg","county":"Loudoun County","state":"VA","lat":39.00265078450005,"lon":-77.76714280572145,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-06-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Benton (historically Spring Hill) is an early 19th-century Federal plantation house with brick and wood outbuildings on Route 744, four miles north of Middleburg in Loudoun County, Virginia. It was completed by 1831 and built by William Benton.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an excellent, well-preserved Federal plantation house with its dependencies and a rare three-story brick barn. It reflects the skill of its builder, English-born brickmaker and mason William Benton, who supervised brickwork at James Monroe's Oak Hill. It also symbolizes the agricultural prosperity of northern Virginia in the early 1800s.","narrative":"Benton is a Federal-style plantation house set in the hunt country four miles north of Middleburg, Virginia. Completed by 1831, it has a two-story brick center block flanked by two 1½-story wings, with Flemish bond brickwork on the original south front. Its builder, William Benton, was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1788 and worked as a master brickmaker. He supervised the brickwork at James Monroe's Oak Hill and is credited with making bricks for many early houses around Middleburg. The property keeps its flanking brick dependencies and a rare three-story brick barn dated 1833. Inside, the woodwork and original floorboards are well preserved. Daniel Sands bought the estate in 1908, renamed it Benton from Spring Hill, and made the north side the main front by adding dormers, a porch and a kitchen wing. Under the Sands family it became a noted horse farm and garden showplace. Apart from those changes, the house is little altered.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"William Benton","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied as a private residence; the gardens and a miniature golf course on the grounds are described as poorly maintained or in disrepair.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.204023-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/55/6815/41681555/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/84003545.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003545/b6c01a99ed-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003545/b6c01a99ed-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jerrye &amp; Roy Klotz, MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BENTON,_LOUDOUN_COUNTY,_VA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerrye &amp;amp; Roy Klotz, MD</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:BENTON,_LOUDOUN_COUNTY,_VA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681555","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benton_(Middleburg,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4890534"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/loudoun-county/benton-84003545/"}