Plains Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

From the record

One of 16 National Register listings published here for Sumter County · listed in 1984 · category: District.

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

The listing

Address. Roughly bounded by Buena Vista Rd., Hospital, Clark, Main, Thomas, Paschal, and Bond Sts., Plains, 31780
When was it listed? June 1984
Category. district
Census division. Plains
National Register reference number. 84001220 - 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

135 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 135 fires within 5 miles of Plains Historic District between 1992 and 2020, burning about 521 acres in total. 13 started naturally. 7 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
Debris and open burning	79
Natural	13
Equipment and vehicle use	12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	11
Arson/incendiarism	7
Smoking	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Recreation and ceremony	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
9 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2011-SUMTER-009
30 September 1999	Smoking	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
29 September 2019	Debris and open burning	1.1 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2020SUMTER017
29 September 1993	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
25 September 2010	Debris and open burning	2.4 acres	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2011-SUMTER-020
20 September 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2014-WEBSTER-001
18 September 2014	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Georgia Forestry Commission	FY2015-SUMTER-013

Every fire recorded in Sumter County

Storms near this property

15 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Plains, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 tornado, 1 lightning. The reports record 2 deaths and 8 injuries. 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
March 2007	Tornado (EF3)	Plains	2 killed, 8 hurt, $110,000,000	A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Georgia concluded that the EF3 tornado that first touched down in southeast Webster county continued to track northeast from the southwest to the northeast corner of Sumter county and then continued into extreme southern Macon county before finally lifting. The tornado tracked a total distance on the ground of approximately 40 miles. The tornado entered Sumter county about 4.75 miles southwest of Plains in southwest Sumter county and exited the northeast part of the county about 9 miles north of Methvins in northeast Sumter county. This was by far the most violent and devastating tornado of the March 1st outbreak. The tornado tracked roughly 32 miles across Sumter county with a maximum path width of 1.0 mile wide, which occurred in the Americus area. Damage within the city of Americus was extensive, although structures, trees, and power lines were down along the entire path of the tornado. The most significant damage in Americus was to the Sumter Regional Hospital, of which a significant portion was destroyed. Hundreds of homes and businesses in the Americus area were either totally destroyed or sustained significant damage. Hunderds of vehicles were also damaged or destroyed by debris and/or tossed about like matchsticks. The majority of the damage was within the vicinity of the Sumter Regional Hospital. Two deaths were reported at a home in Americus when a wall collapsed on a 43 year-old male and a 53-year old female. At least eight injuries were documented, but there may have been more.\|\|Within the city of Americus, proper, there were 1235 total structures damaged or destroyed, including 217 businesses, 993 residences, 3 cemeteries, 10 churches, 1 fire station, 1 hospital, 8 recreational facilities/parks, and 2 schools. There were 75 structures (42 businesses, 31 residences, 1 hospital, 1 church) were destroyed. There were 148 structures (27 businesses, 116 residences, 3 recreational facilities/parks, 2 churches) with major damage. There were 331 structures (60 businesses, 260 residences, 3 recreational facilities/parks, 5 churches, 1 school, 2 cemeteries) with moderate damage and 681 structures (88 businesses, 586 residences, 2 recreational facilities/parks, 2 churches, 1 school, 1 cemetery, 1 fire station) with minor damage.
March 2011	Hail	Plains	$182,000	Several reports of large damaging hail, ranging in size from golf balls to baseballs, were received from the public and the Sumter County 911 Center from across the county. While the hail initially began as quarter-sized hail is it entered the northwestern part of the county north of Plains, it grew to golf ball and baseball size as it moved across Americus.
June 2007	Hail	Plains	$140,000	Employees of the U.S. Post Office in Plains Georgia reported that tennis ball-sized hail fell in the area.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$50,000	The Sumter County Emergency Manager reported numerous trees and a few power lines blown down across the entire county from Friendship to Maddix, Americus, Leslie, Cobb and Methvins.
April 2009	Tornado (EF1)	Plains	$5,000	A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia confirmed that a brief EF0 tornado touched down in western Sumter county near the Experimental Station on U.S. Highway 280, approximately one mile northeast of Plains, and tracked about one mile to the east-southeast before lifting. The tornado was determined to have a maximum path width of 200 yards with maximum winds estimated at 100 mph. Wind equipment at the Plains Research Center measured a wind gust of 110 mph as the tornado passed nearby. This was the second of three tornadoes to affect Sumter county during the late evening of April 10th and the early morning hours of April 11th. Damage along the tornado path was spotty with many downed trees.
February 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$5,000	The Sumter County Emergency Management Director reported that numerous trees and power lines were blown down from near Plains to five miles east of Friendship in the western part of the county.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$5,000	The Sumter County 911 Center reported that several trees were down at a number of locations in the southwest corner of the county, south of Plains.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$5,000	A power pole and a few lines along with several large trees were downed by thunderstorm winds.
March 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$3,000	The Sumter County 911 Center reported that several trees were down in the area and the power was also out in Plains.
July 2000	Lightning	Plains	$3,000	The Sumter county 911 center reported lightning set a power pole on fire.
March 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$2,500	The Middle Flint Regional E911 Center reported that several trees were blown down in Plains.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$2,000	Two trees were downed in Plains. One at the Plains post office and the other near the intersection of Hwy 45 and Hwy 308.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Plains	$1,000	Tree reported down blocking roadway near intersection of Bonds Trail Dr and Thrasher Rd.
May 2001	Hail	Plains	-	The Sumter county 911 center reported dime size hail, although most of the hail observed was only pea size.
January 1997	Hail	Plains	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sumter 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

3 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
Jimmy Carter National Historic Site	0.1 miles	1987
Morgan Farm	7.3 miles	1998
Teel-Crawford-Gaston Plantation	7.8 miles	2004

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 84001220 in Record Group 79.
Sumter County	All 16 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.