{"nrhp_refnum":"93000235","name":"Chinqua-Penn Plantation","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"NC 1998 N side, 0.2 mi. W of jct. with NC 1987","address_restricted":false,"city":"Reidsville","county":"Rockingham County","state":"NC","lat":36.38473047450006,"lon":-79.69979698881991,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-04-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Chinqua-Penn Plantation is a 23-acre country estate district on Wentworth Road (SR 1998) near Reidsville, Rockingham County, North Carolina. It holds a 1923-1925 stone-and-log manor house, gate lodges, a pagoda, a greenhouse and landscaped gardens.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is one of the few grand early twentieth-century country estates in North Carolina and perhaps the most personal architectural statement of the state's wealthy elite of that era. Tobacco heir Jeff Penn and his wife Betsy created it with New York architect Harry C. Ingalls and a landscape architect from Buffalo. Its rustic exterior and eclectic period rooms, filled with salvaged European and Asian architectural elements and art, make it distinctive.","narrative":"Chinqua-Penn Plantation is a 23-acre country estate about two miles northwest of Reidsville, in North Carolina's northern piedmont. Tobacco heir Jeff Penn and his wife Betsy developed it in the 1920s and 1930s. The centerpiece is a Y-shaped manor house built from 1923 to 1925 to designs by New York architect Harry C. Ingalls. Its exterior of stone rubble, horizontal logs and slate roofs, made from materials taken from the property, was meant to suit the countryside. Inside, the rooms deliberately mix styles, including Spanish, Italian Renaissance, English Jacobean, Pompeiian and Chinese, using paneling, mantels and columns salvaged from Europe and Asia. The grounds, laid out by a Buffalo landscape architect, include gate lodges, a pagoda beside a pool, a greenhouse, stone sentry houses, a rookery and four distinct gardens. The estate counts 23 contributing resources. It is regarded as one of the few grand early twentieth-century country estates in the state and has been a public attraction since 1966.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Harry C. Ingalls (architect, New York); William E. Harries (landscape architect, Buffalo, NY)","architectural_style":"Other: Eclectic","criteria":[],"status_note":"Operated by the University of North Carolina system as a public attraction since 1966; current function is museum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.003165-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/7/7220/47722007/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/93000235.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000235/749c07937e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000235/749c07937e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Dangreer2000","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinqua_Penn_Plantation.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Dangreer2000</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinqua_Penn_Plantation.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47722007","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinqua_Penn_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5101263"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/rockingham-county/chinqua-penn-plantation-93000235/"}