{"nrhp_refnum":"90001824","name":"Airville","other_names":["DHR File #36-03"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 629 S of jct. with VA 626","address_restricted":false,"city":"Gloucester","county":"Gloucester County","state":"VA","lat":37.38684917100005,"lon":-76.50387794233899,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-12-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Airville is a frame plantation house with a group of early outbuildings on a high ridge off State Route 629 in Gloucester County, Virginia. The older section dates to the late 18th century and a three-story addition was built between 1836 and 1840 for Thomas Smith.","why_significant":"The nomination argues for significance under Criterion B for its association with Thomas Smith, a merchant and member of the Virginia House of Delegates who directed the major building work between 1828 and 1840. Under Criterion C, it is a locally significant example of vernacular building combined with Greek Revival style drawn from early nineteenth-century pattern books.","narrative":"Airville is a plantation house on a high ridge in Gloucester County, Virginia, reached by a winding landscaped lane. The frame house was built in two stages: a gambrel-roofed, central-passage section from the late eighteenth century, and a three-story addition from the 1830s with a Greek Revival porch of fluted Ionic columns. Thomas Smith, a merchant and member of the Virginia House of Delegates, bought the property in 1827 and began a building program in 1828, starting with outbuildings and then remodeling the older house to match the new section. Letters in his papers document purchases of marble mantels, locks, granite steps and copper gutters. Behind the house stand a round brick dairy and icehouse, a smokehouse, a lumber house and an early office building, forming a plantation street. The property was recognized for Smith's role in these projects and as a local example of vernacular construction combined with Greek Revival style from pattern books. Six buildings contribute and two modern buildings do not.","period_of_significance":"1821-1841","architect_builder":"Smith, Thomas (builder/owner); architect unknown","architectural_style":"Federal; Greek Revival","criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a single dwelling with secondary structures; the house was renovated in the 1920s, 1940s and 1960s, and an early outbuilding has been remodeled into an apartment.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.842803-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/38/6809/41680938/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/90001824.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001824/4a8812e07d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90001824/4a8812e07d-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ. M.D.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AIRVILLE,_GLOUCESTER,_GLOUCESTER_COUNTY,_VA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ. M.D.</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AIRVILLE,_GLOUCESTER,_GLOUCESTER_COUNTY,_VA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680938","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airville","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14711956"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/gloucester-county/airville-90001824/"}