{"nrhp_refnum":"93000823","name":"Frederick County Poor Farm","other_names":["Frederick County Poorhouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"VA 654 E side, S of jct. with VA 679","address_restricted":false,"city":"Round Hill","county":"Frederick County","state":"VA","lat":39.21225198500005,"lon":-78.22310615680323,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-08-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A former county poor farm complex on Route 654 near Round Hill, Frederick County, Virginia, centered on a brick poorhouse built in 1820 and including a springhouse, a frame dwelling, a blacksmith shop and farm outbuildings.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the 1820 poorhouse is a rare, well-preserved survivor of an early-nineteenth-century institution, and one of only two Virginia poorhouses showing more than rectangular-box massing. It is significant under Criterion A for social history and the evolution of care for the poor, and under Criterion C as a rare early-nineteenth-century complex. The farm operated until 1947.","narrative":"Frederick County Poor Farm is a rural complex east of Route 654 near Round Hill, built to shelter and care for the county's poor. Its main building, a brick poorhouse erected in 1820, has a two-story center block with one-story wings, each holding a row of single-room apartments, and a rear ell added in the mid-nineteenth century. The builder is unknown. Other surviving structures include an early brick springhouse, a mid-nineteenth-century frame dwelling and a rare early-twentieth-century blacksmith shop of unusual construction. The county bought the land in 1820 after an earlier poorhouse in Winchester proved inadequate, and the farm housed dozens of residents in the mid-1800s before numbers declined. It closed in 1947. The property was recognized for its social history, reflecting changing ideas about poverty relief, and for its architecture, as one of very few surviving Virginia poorhouses with an articulated plan. Only two apartments are currently rented.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1820-1943","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Early Republic: Federal","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Two apartments in one wing are still rented, but the building is otherwise unused. It appears to be in fair to good structural shape, though renovation would be a massive task. Several twentieth-century farm structures are deteriorating.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.283852-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/24/6808/41680824/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/93000823.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000823/38f8a2349c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000823/38f8a2349c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"AgnosticPreachersKid","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederick_County_Poor_Farm_4.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">AgnosticPreachersKid</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederick_County_Poor_Farm_4.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680824","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_County_Poor_Farm","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712342"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/frederick-county/frederick-county-poor-farm-93000823/"}