William Koger House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

From the record

“The William Koger House is a historic residence near Smithsonia, Alabama. The house was built around 1830 by William and Martha Koger, planters from Virginia.”
Wikipedia article William Koger House (Smithsonia, Alabama), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 39 National Register listings published here for Lauderdale County · listed in 1986 · category: Building.

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

The listing

Listed as. Koger, William, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. Smithsonia-Rhodesville Rd., Smithsonia, 35633
When was it listed? July 1986
Category. building
Also known as. Tidewater Cottages in the Tennessee Valley TR
Census division. Oakland
National Register reference number. 86001542 - 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

165 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 165 fires within 5 miles of William Koger House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,521 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 68 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/incendiarism	68
Debris and open burning	40
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	24
Equipment and vehicle use	18
Smoking	8
Natural	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2002	Arson/incendiarism	3.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
30 September 1998	Arson/incendiarism	2.5 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
3 September 2013	Equipment and vehicle use	30 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	NOR-20130903-001
28 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
25 September 1998	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
22 September 1997	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2003	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	4685 COUNTY ROAD 189, AL
16 September 2016	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	20160916-1

Every fire recorded in Lauderdale County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of William Koger House: 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Unnamed	Iron	Unknown

Every working recorded in Lauderdale County

Storms near this property

11 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smithsonia, the town this property stands in, in 11 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2011	Tornado (EF1)	Smithsonia	1 hurt	A tornado with an EF-1 intensity produced peak wind speeds up to 90 mph. The tornado touched down 1 mile north of the intersection of County Road 2 and County Road 189 north of Smithsonia. Here, a large storage shed was demolished and a second was partially damaged. The tornado crossed the intersection of County Roads 189 and 221 where a staff member of the Emergency Management Agency for Lauderdale County was injured in his vehicle by broken glass. The tornado continued to the corner of County Roads 189 and 62 where the front end of a church was ripped off and 3 large trees were toppled in different directions. \|\|Adjacent to the church, a residence had exterior damage, where siding was ripped off and thrown approximately 300 yards into a field. Numerous twigs and sticks were driven into the side of the home and several windows were blown out. A 28 foot travel trailer was picked up, toppled and moved approximately 10 feet. Insulation was sucked out of the attic and into the garage, and the water heater in the home was imploded. The tornado then lifted northeast of this residence.
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$50,000	The Smithsonia Church of Christ and an adjacent mobile home sustained damage along CR 2. The photo of the damage indicated significant damage to the west facing roof and top portion of the underlying brick wall. Time estimated by radar.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$7,000	Trees and powerlines were knocked down on CR 128.
January 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$3,000	Trees were downed at County Road 2 near the Natchez Trace. The time was estimated by radar.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$1,000	A tree was knocked down at CR 2 and Sunset Beach Road. Time was estimated from radar.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$1,000	A tree was knocked down at 335 Sunset Beach Road. Time estimated by radar.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$1,000	A tree was reported down at the intersection of CR 2 and CR 189. Time was estimated from radar.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$1,000	A tree was reported down near the intersection of CR 2 and Sunset Beach Road. Time was estimated from radar.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$500	A tree was knocked down onto power lines at 336 Sunset Beach Road. Time estimated by radar.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	$200	A tree was knocked down on CR 4 between CR 180 and CR 15.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithsonia	-	Multiple trees were knocked down in the road in the Sunset Beach neighborhood.

Every storm recorded in Lauderdale 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Old Natchez Trace (310-2A)	7.5 miles	1976
	Peter F. Armistead Sr. House	7.7 miles	1986

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 86001542 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Lauderdale County	All 39 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.