Engleside
Also known as: McNair, Judge James, House
Why it's listed
Engleside is a large Greek Revival house with associated outbuildings on a 13.785-acre parcel in West Sparta, southern Livingston County, New York. Judge James McNair, a War of 1812 captain and County Court judge from an early Scots Irish settler family, built it in 1848 and left it to his son. The main block is a two-story, three-bay, side-hall house under a hipped roof, with a heavily trabeated entrance and square Doric porch posts that have unusual rounded corners. A rear wing may be an earlier, smaller house. The property keeps a stone retaining wall with a carriage block and steps, a cast iron fountain, a barn, a garage and a laundry drying house with an attached privy. The nomination values the house as a late, well-preserved example of the style in a rural area, and the drying house as a rare surviving service building of a prosperous nineteenth-century household. Several late twentieth-century buildings on the parcel are noncontributing.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues that Engleside is a largely intact, large-scale vernacular Greek Revival house, built late for the style, with surviving nineteenth-century support buildings. It also links the property to Judge James McNair, an early settler and leader of West Sparta and the Dansville area. The laundry drying house is described as a rare surviving working outbuilding.
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 09000156, listed March 23, 2009. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 9086 McNair Rd., Dansville |
|---|---|
| County | Livingston County |
| Listed | March 23, 2009 |
| Reference number | 09000156 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca. 1848 - ca. 1880 |
| Architect / builder | Unknown |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Still used as a single dwelling; described as surviving in a high state of preservation. |
| Acreage | 13.8 |
| Coordinates | 42.58628, -77.74252 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary: it recognises significance and does not restrict what a private owner may do without federal money or permits. It unlocks the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit for income-producing buildings, state credits in many states, and Section 106 review when federal agencies are involved. See what listing means in practice.
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 09000156.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5378106
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.