{"nrhp_refnum":"85001460","name":"Thomas, James A., Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SR 1941","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pittsboro","county":"Chatham County","state":"NC","lat":35.705772213000074,"lon":-79.07844240646894,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-07-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The James A. Thomas Farm is a small piedmont farm near Pittsboro in Chatham County, North Carolina, consisting of a main house built in several sections and a group of log, weatherboard and board-and-batten outbuildings. The farm sits on the banks of the Haw River.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the farm illustrates the physical evolution of a small piedmont North Carolina farm during the late nineteenth century. Its main house combines an early vernacular cabin with a two-story wing that adds subtle Greek Revival influences, and it is associated with the decline of larger farms and the growth of smaller ones in the state.","narrative":"Along the Haw River in Chatham County, the James A. Thomas Farm shows how a small piedmont farmstead changed over the late nineteenth century. The main house began as a one-story frame cabin, perhaps dating to the late 1860s or early 1870s, and was altered during an 1890s remodeling that moved the kitchen and added a sawn balustrade. A two-story wing, said by family tradition to have been built with help from a local Masonic lodge after a fire around 1882, adds Greek Revival details such as pilastered corner boards, a wide frieze and scalloped cornice returns to vernacular forms. Its interior retains Greek Revival doors and mantels. The outbuildings include log smokehouses and barns with V-notching and iron hinges, and a board-and-batten cabin built around 1903. James Andrew Thomas farmed here from 1869 and grew cotton as his main cash crop. The farm's size fell from 170 to 141 acres during the 1880s and 1890s, while the average North Carolina farm shrank as well.","period_of_significance":"c. 1870-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular with Greek Revival influences","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The document states the farm's main house and outbuildings remained in place after federal purchase of land for a lake in the 1970s; current occupancy is not stated beyond the 1983 reference to the family.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.063521-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/69/7174/47717469/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/85001460.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717469","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Thomas_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18158775"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/chatham-county/thomas-james-a-farm-85001460/"}