{"nrhp_refnum":"91001505","name":"Gunston Hall","other_names":["Franklin Hall"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"324 Vanderbilt Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Biltmore Forest","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.54784384200008,"lon":-82.53661775977116,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1991-10-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-part Colonial Revival house at 324 Vanderbilt Road in Biltmore Forest, Buncombe County, North Carolina, built as a summer residence and set on about eight acres with formal gardens. It was completed in 1923 for Dr. William Beverley Mason to a design by Washington architect Waddy B. Wood.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant at local, state and national levels in architecture, landscape architecture and community development. It is presented as the first known replica of an eighteenth-century landmark house built by a descendant of its original builder, and as an early example of the American Colonial Revival. The designed landscape, developed from 1920 to about 1955, is described as largely intact from the first half of the twentieth century.","narrative":"Built in 1923 in Biltmore Forest, a residential park carved from the Vanderbilt estate near Asheville, this five-part brick house follows the plan of Gunston Hall, the Virginia home of Dr. Mason's great-great-grandfather George Mason. Washington architect Waddy B. Wood replicated the central block's proportions and pedimented porch, while the garden front has a three-part Tuscan doorway instead of the original Chinese Gothic porch. Luther L. Merchant built the house, which Dr. Mason used as a summer residence. The property is valued as a pioneering early Colonial Revival design, predating the restorations at Colonial Williamsburg by several years. Its grounds, shaped by landscape superintendent Chauncey Beadle and later enlarged by owner Lola Anderson Dennis, are regarded as a largely intact early twentieth-century designed landscape. The house was also an early model for later construction in the development.","period_of_significance":"1920-ca. 1955","architect_builder":"Waddy B. Wood (architect); Luther L. Merchant (contractor/builder)","architectural_style":"Colonial Revival","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:41.969631-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/3/7192/47719203/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/91001505.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719203","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunston_Hall_(Biltmore_Forest,_North_Carolina)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18151222"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/gunston-hall-91001505/"}