{"nrhp_refnum":"92000052","name":"Cifax Rural Historic District","other_names":["DHR File No. 9-254"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jct. of VA 644 and VA 643 and surrounding valley area","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cifax","county":"Bedford (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.41724228900006,"lon":-79.40760471457233,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-02-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rural historic district of about 1,800 acres in a small valley on Sycamore Creek around the crossroads of Routes 644 and 643 in Cifax, northeastern Bedford County, Virginia. It contains farmhouses, outbuildings, churches, a school and a former commercial site dating from the second quarter of the 19th century onward.","why_significant":"The district preserves a well-kept Piedmont farming landscape with log, frame and brick buildings that show the persistence of regional building traditions. Its history also covers the Poindexter family landholdings, the village's commercial life centered on the Thomson store and Cash Bargain House, and the Scotchbroom City black community with its church and school. The exact criteria and period are not fully legible in the truncated text.","narrative":"Cifax Rural Historic District covers roughly 1,800 acres of open farmland and wooded hillsides in a small upland valley of northeastern Bedford County, Virginia. Narrow tree-lined roads link farms whose houses and barns date from the second quarter of the nineteenth century to the present. Log dwellings, such as the Dillard Coffey and David Haynes houses, sit alongside frame farmhouses built in the early twentieth century and The Cedars, a Greek Revival brick house that is the only pre-twentieth-century brick building in the area. Three church buildings, an early school and the site of a locally important store add to the mix. The district is tied to the Poindexter family, who divided a large landholding into the area's first farms. It also reflects village commerce under Henry Thomson and the settlement of Scotchbroom City, a black community with its own Baptist church and school. Most farmers still raise cattle, corn and hay.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Greek Revival; Colonial Revival; Regional Vernacular","criteria":[],"status_note":"Many buildings remain in domestic and agricultural use, but the form lists current functions that include vacant/not in use; some structures, such as the Logwood-Williams House, are collapsed. The Thomson store burned in 1968.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.3482-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/52/6797/41679752/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/92000052.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000052/f052c85954-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000052/f052c85954-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cedars_barn.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Cedars_barn.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679752","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cifax_Rural_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712175"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/bedford/cifax-rural-historic-district-92000052/"}