NPS Form IO·900b OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (Rev. Aug. 2002) (Expires Jan. 2005) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form This lorm is used for documenting muiliple property groups relaUng to one or several historic contexts. See instructions In How to Comp/ete the Muftlpfe PlOperly Documentation Form (National Register Bullel!n 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested Information. For additional space, use continuation sheets (Form 10·90()..a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items. X New Submission Amended Submission A. Name of Multiple Property LIsting Historic and Architectural Resources of Rockingham County, North Carolina, ca. 1799-1953 B. Associated Historic Contexts (Name",.ch .ssociated historic context, Identifyjng them •• geo.graJlhleal area. and ehronologleal period for each.) Na~lVe AmerlCan UccupaClon ana ~uropean Settlement to 1812 Speculation, Slavery and Tobacco: 1813-1860 War, Recovery and Modern Industrial Beginnings in Rural and Small-Town Rockingham County: 1861-1900 A Shifting Landscape Beyond the County's Towns: 1901-1929 Change Comes Slowly in the Countryside and Hamlets: 1930-1953 Rockingham County Sjnce 1953 C. Form Prepared by name/title __S_a_r_a_h __ A_._W_o_o_d_a_r_d __________________________ _ Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc. organization __________________________ d~e October 14, 2003 street & number 610 W. Morgan st. (P.O. Box 1171) telephone 919-682-2211 Durham N C city or town ____________ state _--.:..:'~:...' ______ zip code 27702 D. Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic PreServation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this documentallon form meets the National Register documentation standards and sets forth requirements for the listing of related properties consistent with the National Register criteria. This submission meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth In 36 CFR Part 60 and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation. (0 See contfnuatlon sheet for addillonal comments.) Signature and tiUe of certifyIng offiCial Date State or Federal Agency or Tribal government I hereby certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating related properties for listing in the National Register. Signature of Ihe Keeper Date of Aclion Historic and Architectural Resources of Rockingham County, North Carolina: ca. 1799-1953 North Carolina Name of Multiple Property LIsting State Table of Contents for Written Narrative Provide the following information on contlnualion sheets. eile tha letter and the tiUe before each section of the narrative. AssIgn page numbers accordIng to the instructions for contlnuallon sheets in How (0 Comp18t8 the Multiple Property Documentatfon Form (Nallonal Register Bulletin 168). Fill In page numbers for each section In the space below. Page Numbers E. Statement of Historic Contexts 1-90 (If more than one historic context Is documented, present them In sequential order.) F. Associated Property Types 91-137 (Provide descripUon, significance, and registration requirements.) G. Geographical Data 138 H. Summary of Identification and Evaluation Methods 139-141 (Discuss the methods used in developlng the multiple property listing.) I. Major Bibliographical References 142-147 (List major written works and primary location of additional documentation: State Historic Preservation Oltice. other State agency, Federal agency, locat government, university, or other, specifying repository.) Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This Informatlon Is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.). Estimated Burdan Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 120 hours per response Including the time for reviewing Instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments' regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division. National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127. Washington. DC 20013·7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number E Page 1 Historic and Architectural Resources of Rockingham County, North Carolina, ca. 1799-1953 Introduction From its rugged, rocky, steeply rolling northwest corner to the wide bottomlands along the Dan River and its pastoral undulating terrain in the southeast, Rockingham County is a land of geographical variations. In the mid-1800s, historian John H. Wheeler precisely, if melodramatically, captured this quality: All the physical features and attributes of Rockingham are in harmony with the rare felicity of its geographical situation. Its majestic hills and smiling valleys unroll to the eye like a panorama of beauty and grandeur and laugh into the harvest of plenty . From the bosom of its hills come the sunny streams which irrigate the landscapes and form by the union the majestic rivers whose rushing waters keep music with the roaring wheels and humming spindles.1 While much has changed in Rockingham County, Wheeler’s description remains accurate. Hills still give way to wide, bountiful valleys, ridgelines provide striking views, and the towns still acknowledge the geographic features that brought their prosperity. The county covers 572 square miles on the northern edge of North Carolina’s Piedmont region with Virginia to the north, Stokes County to the west, Caswell County to the east and Guilford County to the south. Rectangular in shape, it is about twenty-nine miles from west to east and roughly twenty miles north to south. The highest elevation (1,022 feet above sea level) occurs at Price in the northwest while the county’s lowest point is on the Dan River in the northeast corner. One eighteenth century visitor noted as he passed through the county from east to west that “the face of the country had been becoming more and more uneven, broken and rugged and the eminences had been gradually swelling into higher hills.”2 Hardwoods and pine trees interrupted by small irregularly shaped cultivated fields characterize the county’s landscape, although increasingly, residential development has converted more and more farmland and woodlands into lawns. The county’s most dominant natural feature is the Dan River, which rises in Virginia, crosses neighboring Stokes County and meanders diagonally across Rockingham County from southwest to northeast before returning to Virginia where it joins the Staunton River to form the 1 John H. Wheeler, Historical Sketches of North Carolina: 1584-1851 (Baltimore: Regional Publishing Company, 1864). 2 John F. D. Smyth, esq., A Tour in the United States of America, vol. 1 (London: G. Robinson, J. Robeson and J. Sewell, 1784), 250. NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number E Page 2 Historic and Architectural Resources of Rockingham County, North Carolina, ca. 1799-1953 Roanoke River. William Byrd described the river in 1733 as “about eighty yards wide, always confined within its lofty banks, and rolling down its waters, as sweet as milk, and as clear as crystal.”3 Byrd states that he named the Dan, but for what or whom is not clear.4 The Dan’s fertile bottomlands, in some places as much as five miles in width, were the source of much of the county’s wealth historically and they continue to support agriculture today. In 1810, Alexander Sneed, a planter, real estate investor, and promoter of Rockingham County writing in response to a request of the Raleigh Star editor for a sketch of the county, described the bottoms as “mostly of a dark Rich mould, mixt with sand, and are well adapted to the culture of Indian corn, &c and are the most Valuable of any in the county.”5 The county’s other major rivers, the Smith, which crosses into the county at nearly the center of its northern border, and the Mayo, which enters the county in the northwest, are both tributaries of the Dan. 6 The Haw River has its beginning in Forsyth County but curves to the northeast arcing into the southern edge of Rockingham County. Many creeks and streams, such as Wolf Island, Big and Little Troublesome, Upper and Lower Hogans, Lick Fork, Matrimony, Jacobs and Beaver Island, traverse the county. Although the author notes poor drainage along the Haw and along Troublesome and Hogans creeks as well as erosion problems on steep slopes, a 1926 USDA Soil Survey found that “smaller streams and numerous perennial and intermittent branches extend to all parts of the county, giving every farm one or more drainage outlets and effecting complete and thorough drainage of the up lands.”7 Like the Dan, the dark, sandy loam of the creek bottomlands advanced agricultural endeavors in the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. 3 William