{"nrhp_refnum":"84003556","name":"Reedville Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"VA 644 at VA 722","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reedville","county":"Northumberland County","state":"VA","lat":37.84231355800006,"lon":-76.27589601986057,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-08-16","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A maritime village historic district on a narrow peninsula bordered by Cockrell Creek in eastern Northumberland County, Virginia, containing seventy-eight structures, fourteen of them noncontributing. The town was founded in the 1870s by Elijah Reed.","why_significant":"Reedville grew after the Civil War when Elijah Reed brought the menhaden fish-oil industry from New England to Virginia, and fifteen menhaden factories were operating by 1885. The district preserves a few 1870s New England-style workers' dwellings. It mainly reflects the turn-of-the-century prosperity of the town, with an unusually fine collection of late Victorian and early 20th-century homes built for industrialists, sea captains and merchants.","narrative":"Reedville is a small maritime village on a half-mile peninsula in Northumberland County, Virginia, surrounded on three sides by Cockrell Creek. Founded in the 1870s, it grew from the menhaden fishing industry that Captain Elijah Reed brought south from New England. He opened the first factory on the point in 1875, and fifteen factories were working by 1885. The district holds seventy-eight structures, mostly late 19th- and early 20th-century frame houses with deep front porches. A few modest 1870s dwellings follow New England patterns. Among the larger buildings are the Queen Anne George Reed House and Albert Morris House, the brick mansion known as The Gables, and a row of five large houses called Millionaires Row. Bethany Methodist Church, the Masonic Hall and the 1910 People's Bank add public and commercial character. A 1925 fire destroyed the old waterfront factories, and later industrial buildings stand in their place. The district is notable for showing the wealth the fishing trade created.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899, 1900- (specific dates 1870s to present)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Gothic Revival, and vernacular late 19th- and early 20th-century buildings","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition is marked excellent, good, altered and deteriorated; occupied and unoccupied. The waterfront menhaden factories are gone, and the area has later warehouses and some abandoned stores and sheds.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.614802-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/98/6822/41682298/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/84003556.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003556/3ff5fd1a9d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84003556/3ff5fd1a9d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:REEDVILLE_HISTORIC_DISTRICT.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:REEDVILLE_HISTORIC_DISTRICT.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41682298","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reedville_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15272200"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/northumberland-county/reedville-historic-district-84003556/"}