{"nrhp_refnum":"99000728","name":"Moore, John, House","other_names":["DHR File No. 81-28"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"183 Big Hill Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lexington","county":"Rockbridge County","state":"VA","lat":37.861076266000055,"lon":-79.55145042907257,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1999-06-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, three-bay brick Federal-style farmhouse built in 1831 on about ten acres on Big Hill Road near Denmark, outside Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia, with a ca. 1830 stone spring house.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is a well-preserved local example of domestic architecture showing a personal interpretation of the Federal style, built for a prosperous farm family. Its refined interior woodwork draws on Federal precedents and folk traditions. It is eligible under Criterion C in Architecture at the local level.","narrative":"Set at the base of Big House Mountain above Kerr's Creek, this brick farmhouse near Lexington was completed in 1831 for John Moore and his wife Betsy Cunningham Moore. Moore gathered the former Cunningham lands and built up a farm of more than 800 acres. The two-story, three-bay house has handmade bricks fired on the property, a stone foundation, and paired fanlit entrances on the front. Inside, a center-passage plan holds an open-well staircase, fluted door surrounds with concentric-circle corner blocks, and Federal mantels carved with sunburst motifs that may reflect Germanic influence. Family recollection credits an Eastern architect with the carved work. A stone spring house of about 1830 stands near a spring-fed pond. The house was listed for its architecture, as a carefully preserved local interpretation of the Federal style. An archaeological site from an earlier dwelling on the land is recorded but counted as non-contributing for now because of limited documentation.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1830-ca. 1840","architect_builder":"Unknown","architectural_style":"Federal","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still used as a single dwelling, with a 1993 rear ell and porch added; the spring house is also still in use as a secondary structure.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.278823-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/84/6833/41683384/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/99000728.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000728/5dfaf2abd2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99000728/5dfaf2abd2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ, M.D.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JOHN_MOORE_HOUSE,_ROCKBRIDGE_COUNTY_VA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ, M.D.</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:JOHN_MOORE_HOUSE,_ROCKBRIDGE_COUNTY_VA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683384","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moore_House_(Lexington,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15229673"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/rockbridge-county/moore-john-house-99000728/"}