{"nrhp_refnum":"86000569","name":"Matthis, Fleet, Farm","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"US 421 S of SR 1146","address_restricted":false,"city":"Taylors Bridge","county":"Sampson County","state":"NC","lat":34.867126826500055,"lon":-78.2767506154982,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-03-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, center-hall Federal-style farmhouse with outbuildings and a family cemetery on a farm west of US 421 near Taylors Bridge, Sampson County, North Carolina. It was built for Fleet Cooper Matthis, with the form giving dates of about 1830 and the 1830s.","why_significant":"The house has the most elaborate Federal-period exterior woodwork in Sampson County, especially its east gable with a carved three-part window, and an unusual gable-end profile found nowhere else in the county. It is the earliest and most substantial surviving home of the prominent Matthis family and reflects the county's 19th-century plantation agriculture. Mapped outbuilding sites may also yield information on farming practices.","narrative":"Set on a slight knoll amid fields and woods near Taylors Bridge, this two-story center-hall farmhouse was built around 1830 for Fleet Cooper Matthis, a grandson of Edmund Matthis, whose twenty-two children founded much of Sampson County's Matthis and Matthews family. Its east gable is the standout feature: a pedimented end with modillioned and dentiled cornices, carved pilasters and an elaborate three-part attic window, regarded as the finest Federal-period woodwork in the county. Enclosed end bays on the second-floor porch give the house an unusual profile. Matthis lost the property at auction in 1857, and David J. Knowles, who had married a Matthis niece, bought it in 1874. The farm also holds a Knowles family cemetery, a shed, a packhouse, a tobacco barn, a tenant house and the mapped sites of at least fifteen former outbuildings. These remains, together with the house, illustrate the county's agricultural history before and after the Civil War.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Federal (late Federal, vernacular)","criteria":["A","B","C","D"],"status_note":"The house is described as vacant or unoccupied and in need of attention; the tobacco barn is deteriorated, and the kitchen and dining ell was removed years ago.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.618834-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/83/7183/47718383/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/86000569.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718383","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_Matthis_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19986986"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/sampson-county/matthis-fleet-farm-86000569/"}