Octagonal Schoolhouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

From the record

“Octagonal Schoolhouse, also known as the Eight-square School House, is a historic octagonal schoolhouse building located in Cowgill's Corner, Kent County, Delaware.”
Wikipedia article Octagonal Schoolhouse (Cowgill's Corner, Delaware), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 136 National Register listings published here for Kent County · listed in 1971 · 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

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. E of Cowgill, Cowgill's Corner, 19901
When was it listed? March 1971
Category. building
Census division. Dover
National Register reference number. 71000217 - 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

26 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Octagonal Schoolhouse between 1992 and 2007, burning about 2,925 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 3 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	16
Natural	5
Arson/incendiarism	3
Recreation and ceremony	1
Debris and open burning	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
31 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
26 August 2002	Natural	1.0 acres	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
25 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
23 August 2002	Natural	under an acre	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
23 August 2002	Natural	1.0 acres	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
22 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
23 July 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge	STEAM FIRE
4 June 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Every fire recorded in Kent County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Octagonal Schoolhouse: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
	Tarburton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
	Tarburton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Kent 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

6 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Macomb Farm	0.9 miles	1974
Little Creek Hundred Rural Historic District	1.2 miles	1984
Mifflin-Marim Agricultural Complex	1.9 miles	1984
Wheel of Fortune	2.5 miles	1973
Old Stone Tavern	2.6 miles	1973
Little Creek Methodist Church	2.6 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 71000217 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kent County	All 136 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.