Teel-Crawford-Gaston Plantation
Why it's listed
Near Americus in Sumter County, Georgia, this roughly 850-acre farm grew from a plantation founded by John Teel, who bought the land in 1836 and built a one-story Greek Revival house by about 1840. Enslaved people felled the timber and burned the brick on site. The Crawford family bought the property in 1852 and, after the Civil War, shifted it from slave labor to tenant farming. Robert B. Gaston bought it in 1918 and built most of the surviving outbuildings, including barns, a chicken house, a pump house and a tenant cook's house. The house has a center-hall plan, four fireplaces, molded mantels, and a transom and sidelights at the entrance. Formal plantings in the front yard are set apart from the working landscape. The unmarked slave cemetery and the brickyard site are rare survivals. The farm is still worked by the Gaston family, and its period of significance runs to 1954.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the farm is significant for agriculture because it keeps an intact complex showing both the plantation system and later tenant farming. It is also significant for its Greek Revival Georgian-plan house, its historic farm landscape of ornamental yard and working area, and Black ethnic heritage through the brickyard, house and slave cemetery tied to enslaved people who built and worked the farm.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 04001188, listed October 27, 2004. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 2154 GA 30 W, Americus |
|---|---|
| County | Sumter County |
| Listed | October 27, 2004 |
| Reference number | 04001188 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | c.1836-1840 to 1954 |
| Architectural style | Mid-19th Century: Greek Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Agriculture, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Black |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still operated as a farm, with fields planted in cotton, peanuts and corn. The house and property are seasonally let to hunters. The outbuildings are in poor condition but retain high historic integrity, and some have collapsed. |
| Acreage | 850 |
| Coordinates | 32.14927, -84.39327 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 04001188.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q107001923
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.