{"nrhp_refnum":"90001638","name":"Dix Hill","other_names":["Dorothea Dix Hospital"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Dorothea Dr., Lake Wheeler Rd. and the Norfolk Southern RR tracks","address_restricted":false,"city":"Raleigh","county":"Wake County","state":"NC","lat":35.76654380600007,"lon":-78.65527570841432,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-11-07","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Health/Medicine","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district at the core of Dorothea Dix Hospital (Dix Hill) in southwest Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, containing 22 contributing and 3 noncontributing resources built from 1856 through the 1930s, including the hospital's Center Building, dormitories, staff houses, entrance gates, a gazebo and the landscaped Grove.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that Dix Hill has been North Carolina's state hospital for the mentally ill since 1856 and that its buildings and grounds show the development of humanitarian treatment of the mentally ill. It is also significant for architecture, including A. J. Davis's original asylum design, and for the Grove, a picturesque natural oak landscape comparable to Raleigh's Pullen Park.","narrative":"Dix Hill is the historic core of Dorothea Dix Hospital, the state hospital for the mentally ill in southwest Raleigh. The nominated district covers the pre-1941 resources on part of a roughly 400-acre campus: a wooded hillside known as the Grove, two stone entrance gates, a Victorian gazebo, and buildings dating from 1898 to 1939. Architect A. J. Davis designed the original Center Building, completed in 1856 and shaped by Kirkbride ideas on asylum planning. Its central pavilion was demolished in 1951 and replaced by a six-story section, so the complex counts as noncontributing, though Davis's wings keep their plan and brick vaulting. Other resources include Colonial Revival dormitories of the 1930s, Craftsman and Victorian staff houses, and stone residences from 1923. Together they illustrate the growth of humane mental health care in North Carolina and the evolution of the hospital's landscaped grounds, which resemble the oak grove of Pullen Park.","period_of_significance":"1856-1940","architect_builder":"A. J. Davis (Alexander Jackson Davis); A. G. Bauer; C. C. Hook; builders of Center Building included the Conrad brothers of Lexington and Dabney Cosby of Raleigh","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival, Bungalow/Craftsman, Eastlake (also Tuscan Revival, Dutch Colonial, Classical Revival and Stick Style elements)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a hospital and government office campus; Center Building was partially demolished in 1951 and expanded in 1975, and is counted as noncontributing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:48.926373-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/63/7226/47722663/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/90001638.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001638/8f7f80f6dc-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001638/8f7f80f6dc-1600.webp","licence":"No restrictions","author":"State Archives of North Carolina","credit_html":"State Archives of North Carolina, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:N_53_3999_Dairy_Cows_North_cArolina_State_Farm,_Dix_Hill_Aug_29,_1941_(6238473724).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722663","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dix_Hill","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5284759"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/wake-county/dix-hill-90001638/"}