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Photograph of Wilson-Finlay House
Photograph by RuralSWAlabama, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wilson-Finlay House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“The Wilson-Finlay House also known as the Joshua Wilson House and the Finlay House, is a historic plantation house in Gainestown, Alabama, United States. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on September 17, 1976.”

Wikipedia article Wilson-Finlay House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 21 National Register listings published here for Clarke County · listed in 1978 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. N of Gainestown on Suggsville Rd., Gainestown, 36540
  • When was it listed? July 1978
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Grove Hill
  • National Register reference number. 78000484 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

98 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 98 fires within 5 miles of Wilson-Finlay House between 1994 and 2020, burning about 948 acres in total. None started naturally. 38 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Arson/incendiarism38
Debris and open burning27
Missing data/not specified/undetermined25
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking2
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 September 2002Smoking1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
19 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined18 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20140919-001
14 September 2019Debris and open burning9.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190914-4
27 August 2013Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20130827-001
17 August 2020Arson/incendiarism15 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20200817-3
3 July 2016Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160703-4
5 June 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20130605-001
24 June 2006Arson/incendiarism20 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Every fire recorded in Clarke County

Storms near this property

6 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gainestown, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2011Tornado (EF2)Gainestown$145,000The tornado touched down taking a large section of roof off of a wood frame single story home near the center of circulation, pulling a single-wide mobile home off of its foundation on the north side of the circulation, and lifting off the roof of a nearby double-wide mobile home on the south side of the circulation. The tornado circulation quickly widened to 200 yards and strengthened, rolling another single-wide mobile home 60 yards then causing it to disintegrate as it hit a large tree. The mobile home's bent undercarriage was left about 60 yards to the left of the tornado path. The tornado continued to the east and quickly lifted in a pine forest.
May 2003Thunderstorm WindGainestown$30,000High thunderstorm winds blew down several trees near Gainestown, one falling on the roof of a house, producing damage. Half dollar sized hail was also reported with this storm.
April 2017Thunderstorm WindGainestown$10,000Winds estimated at 70 mph blew a porch off a house on Walker Springs Road.
March 2019Thunderstorm WindGainestown$5,000A downed tree blocking the road at Walker Springs Road near Overstreet Grocery.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindGainestown-High winds caused damage to a metal roof of a home.
February 2016HailGainestown-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Clarke County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

2 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Gainestown Schoolhouseunder 500 feet1992
Gainestown Methodist Church and Cemetery0.8 miles1999

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 78000484 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Clarke CountyAll 21 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.