{"nrhp_refnum":"86000545","name":"Wilson, John E., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SR 1631 at SR 1630","address_restricted":false,"city":"Dunn","county":"Sampson County","state":"NC","lat":35.26047670300005,"lon":-78.50779661199994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-03-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame Italianate Victorian house built about 1878 for John E. Wilson near Dunn in northern Sampson County, North Carolina. It has been moved twice and now sits down a long dirt lane at the edge of a working farm.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the finest Italianate Victorian house in Sampson County and the county's most elaborately decorated example of the traditional two-story, single-pile, center-false-gable house. It is also tied to the late 19th century growth of rural schools, because it served as a boarding house for teachers and students of Shady Grove School.","narrative":"Built about 1878 for farmer and businessman John E. Wilson, this two-story frame house near Dunn is regarded as the finest Italianate Victorian dwelling in Sampson County. A richly decorated two-tier porch with turned posts, sawnwork scrolls and a sawn-slat balustrade marks the front, and bracketed cornices, trefoil gable vents and segmental-arched windows add further detail. The house follows the county's common single-pile, center-false-gable form but carries far more ornament than its neighbors. Wilson's heirs later used it as a boarding house for faculty and students of the nearby Shady Grove School, which ran from 1915 to 1926. The house was moved in 1975 to avoid demolition and again in 1984, when a descendant of Wilson had it relocated to save it from being razed. It has since been restored and sits at a woodline surrounded by cultivated fields, keeping a rural setting. It was recognized for its architecture and its link to rural education.","period_of_significance":"ca 1878","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Italianate Victorian","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Described as vacant when moved in 1975 and later restored; the form states the owner's family now occupies it. The form also checks both occupied and unoccupied status.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:48.840571-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/53/7184/47718453/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/86000545.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718453","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_E._Wilson_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q24436278"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/sampson-county/wilson-john-e-house-86000545/"}