{"nrhp_refnum":"90001991","name":"Phifer, John, Farm","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jct. of Phifer Rd. and SR 1978","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cleveland","county":"Rowan County","state":"NC","lat":35.78002082300006,"lon":-80.72312617533618,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1990-12-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 234-acre historic farm complex on Phifer Road near Cleveland in northwest Rowan County, North Carolina, with about two dozen buildings including two 19th-century log houses (ca. 1819 and ca. 1858), log outbuildings and later frame structures, worked by the Phifer family.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the farm is one of the most important and representative 19th-century farm complexes in Rowan County and the North Carolina piedmont. The ca. 1819 John Phifer House is cited as statewide significant for its rare engaged stone-and-brick gable-end chimney, a form found nowhere else in the county. The complex also preserves log barns, outbuildings, equipment and machinery used by one family for about 165 years.","narrative":"Set on a dirt-and-gravel road in the northwest corner of Rowan County, this 234-acre piedmont farm has been worked by the Phifer family for roughly 165 years. Its fields, pastures and woodlands hold about two dozen buildings, among them two successive log houses, a double-pen log barn, a log granary and corn crib, and a log smokehouse, along with frame outbuildings such as a blacksmith shop, springhouse, chicken houses and tool shed. None of the buildings is painted, and their weathered look blends with the landscape. The small two-story house of about 1819 is the farm's earliest building. Its roof gable projects several feet to shelter a chimney of fieldstone and brick, a medieval-derived form known from only a handful of North Carolina examples and no others in Rowan County. Because it stopped serving as a dwelling in the late nineteenth century, it survives largely intact. The farm's collection of buildings, tools and household furnishings records a largely self-sufficient way of farming over several generations.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Jacob Wilson Phifer (built the ca. 1858 house and log outbuildings); John Phifer (ca. 1819 house, thought to be built by him)","architectural_style":"19th Century Vernacular; 20th Century Vernacular","criteria":[],"status_note":"The 1956 residence is the family home; the ca. 1858 Jacob Wilson Phifer House has not been occupied since 1957 and is maintained and used for storage; the ca. 1819 house ceased to be a dwelling in the late 19th century.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.972614-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/30/7220/47722030/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/90001991.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722030","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Phifer_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19987537"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rowan-county/phifer-john-farm-90001991/"}