{"nrhp_refnum":"97001561","name":"Potts Plantation","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"S of Davidson, SW of Cornelius, between NC 2693 and NC 115","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cornelius","county":"Mecklenburg County","state":"NC","lat":35.47947771750006,"lon":-80.84564335718981,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-01-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Agriculture","Archeology","Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Social History","European","Black"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 510-acre rural plantation district on the headwaters of the Rocky River between Cornelius and Davidson in northwest Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. It includes a plantation seat built in 1811 for Robert Potts, Jr., and farm resources dating from 1811 to 1996.","why_significant":"The property records 244 years of continuous occupation by a single family, from its 1753 acquisition through plantation, tenant farming, gentleman farming and modern cash-crop periods. The 1811 plantation seat is an important example of Federal/Colonial Revival architecture in the county, and the log barn and smokehouse are typical early log construction in the Piedmont. Ruined outbuildings, two cemeteries and the field patterns also record agricultural change.","narrative":"Potts Plantation is a 510-acre farm district between the towns of Cornelius and Davidson in northwest Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The land is what remains of a 636-acre tract acquired by John Potts in 1753 and has stayed in the family ever since. The core is the plantation seat, a two-story weatherboarded log house built in 1811 for Robert Potts, Jr., and enlarged with one-story wings in 1947. Around it are a log barn, a smokehouse, tenant houses, farm outbuildings, a family cemetery and a slave cemetery. The district contains 27 contributing and nine noncontributing resources dating from 1811 to 1996. Its significance lies in how the buildings, ruins, fields, pastures and woodlands show successive eras of farming: plantation work with enslaved labor, tenant farming after the Civil War, gentleman farming from 1961, and modern cash-crop operations. The rural character survives despite nearby towns and lakeside development.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Robert Potts, Jr. (built the 1811 plantation seat for himself); Clifton Eugene Smith (1947 renovation)","architectural_style":"Federal; Late Victorian; Colonial Revival; traditional farm building patterns","criteria":[],"status_note":"Some buildings are occupied or in fair condition. Many outbuildings are abandoned, ruined or storm-damaged, with some damage dating from Hurricane Hugo in 1989. About 102 acres are still cultivated.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:50.061753-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/17/7182/47718217/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/97001561.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47718217","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potts_Plantation","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q19987656"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/mecklenburg-county/potts-plantation-97001561/"}