{"nrhp_refnum":"98001546","name":"Rice-Cornell-Brown House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"29 Rice Branch Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Asheville","county":"Buncombe County","state":"NC","lat":35.64184274050004,"lon":-82.52254813900163,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1998-12-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Social History","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-story, side-gabled log and frame farmhouse at 29 Rice Branch Road in the Beaverdam Valley of northern Buncombe County, Asheville, North Carolina. It began as a one-room log cabin about 1850 and was enlarged in 1890, 1927 and 1953.","why_significant":"The house shows how a mid-nineteenth-century log cabin grew into a late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century farmhouse as the family prospered, and it keeps integrity from each building phase. It is described as one of the few intact mid-nineteenth to early twentieth-century farmhouses left within the Asheville city limits. It is also tied to the Rice family, early settlers of the Beaverdam and Swannanoa valleys.","narrative":"Set on bottomland in the Beaverdam Valley of northern Buncombe County, this farmhouse began about 1850 as a one-room, half-dovetailed hand-hewn log cabin built by or for James Overly Rice, who bought the surrounding 210 acres at auction that year. Later owners reshaped it in stages. A frame addition and vestibule went up in 1890, another room followed in 1927 using salvaged materials from a demolished Biltmore Avenue house, and a board-and-batten addition was made in 1953. The result is a side-gabled log and frame house that keeps features from each period, including an original mantel, whitewashed loft and exposed log walls. The property now covers about 26.75 acres, the remnant of the Rice farm, and includes a tool shed, horse barn and relocated log buildings. It is considered one of the few intact nineteenth-century farmhouses left inside Asheville's city limits and shows a frontier homestead growing into a working farm.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Other: log/frame house","criteria":[],"status_note":"The house is in use as a single dwelling and for family gatherings. The exterior is described as well maintained, and a moved log cabin on the property is rented out.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:48.756774-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/50/7192/47719250/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/98001546.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719250","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137562843"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/buncombe-county/rice-cornell-brown-house-98001546/"}