{"nrhp_refnum":"91000465","name":"Avirett-Stephens Plantation","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"US 258/24 .25 mi. N of NC 1227","address_restricted":false,"city":"Richlands","county":"Onslow County","state":"NC","lat":34.85005875400006,"lon":-77.5342625787988,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-04-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Avirett-Stephens Plantation is an 83-acre tract east of US 258/NC 24 in the Richlands vicinity of Onslow County, North Carolina, with a vernacular Greek Revival house built in 1851, a family cemetery, a brick cistern and later support buildings. It is the remnant of a plantation that once covered about 25,000 acres.","why_significant":"The house is described as the earliest known board and batten dwelling in Onslow County and is noted for its unusually sophisticated interior decorative painting, including graining and marbleizing. The surviving land and buildings are presented as the remaining intact portion of an antebellum turpentine and agricultural plantation that was among the largest in North Carolina.","narrative":"Built in 1851 for John Alfred Avirett, Sr., the two-story frame house in Onslow County stands on an 83-acre remnant of a plantation that once covered about 25,000 acres. Its vernacular Greek Revival form uses rough-sawn heart pine board and batten sheathing on brick piers, a center hall plan and a two-tiered porch. The plantation was a major producer of turpentine, a product of the longleaf pine forests that covered most of its land, and Avirett was among the wealthiest planters in the county before the Civil War. Avirett sold the house and 10,000 acres to Christopher Dudley Stephens in 1857, and Stephens farmed the property until his death in 1891, adding cotton and diversified crops. The interior is valued for its graining on doors, window moldings and sashes, and for marbleized fireplace surrounds, which are rare in the county. The surviving cemetery, cistern and cleared fields preserve the physical layout of the plantation seat.","period_of_significance":"1851-1890","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied; the house continues to be occupied by a member of the family.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:42.456567-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/77/7182/47718277/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/91000465.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718277","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avirett%E2%80%93Stephens_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19460327"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/onslow-county/avirett-stephens-plantation-91000465/"}