{"nrhp_refnum":"90002163","name":"Blue Ridge Farm","other_names":["Alton Park"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Jct. of VA 691 and VA 692","address_restricted":false,"city":"Greenwood","county":"Albemarle County","state":"VA","lat":38.013397550000064,"lon":-78.76491206718151,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-01-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Blue Ridge Farm, also called Alton Park, is a 75-acre estate in the Afton-Greenwood area of western Albemarle County, Virginia. Its brick main house has a mid-nineteenth-century center section, expanded in 1923-1927 by architect William Lawrence Bottomley, with gardens by Charles F. Gillette.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the property is significant in architecture as an outstanding example of Bottomley's Georgian Revival country house work. The exterior and interior almost entirely reflect his 1920s redesign of an older farmhouse. Gillette's English-style gardens, planned in close cooperation with Bottomley, complement the house. The form calls the estate one of Virginia's finest Neo-Georgian properties.","narrative":"Blue Ridge Farm is a 75-acre estate in western Albemarle County, Virginia, whose brick main house combines a mid-nineteenth-century core with major 1920s additions. The center section, built between about 1867 and 1872 by the Smith family, was known as Alton Park and had a mansard roof. In 1923 the Ortman family hired architect William Lawrence Bottomley, who added two brick wings, reshaped the roof into a gambrel with a balustraded deck, created new entrances, and redesigned the interior in the Georgian Revival style. Landscape designer Charles F. Gillette laid out terraces, boxwood and rose gardens, and tied the outbuildings into a unified setting, with long views toward the Blue Ridge. The farm was also a livestock and horse operation under the Ortmans. The property was listed for architecture because the house is regarded as among Bottomley's best country house work of the 1920s and one of only three of his projects in Albemarle County.","period_of_significance":"1923-1927","architect_builder":"William Lawrence Bottomley (additions and alterations); Charles F. Gillette (gardens, terraces)","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as a private single dwelling with secondary structures; gardens are described as overgrown and somewhat altered but still recognizable.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.404233-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/75/6792/41679275/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/90002163.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90002163/8b2494a5e8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/90002163/8b2494a5e8-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Ridge_Farmhouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Ridge_Farmhouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679275","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ridge_Farm_(Greenwood,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712043"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/albemarle-county/blue-ridge-farm-90002163/"}