Charles Brainerd House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

From the record

“The Charles Brainerd House is a historic house located at 420 E. The house was built in 1885 for Charles Corrington Brainerd, the superintendent of the Grafton Stone and Transportation Company.”
Wikipedia article Charles Brainerd House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Jersey County · listed in 1998 · 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, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Brainerd, Charles, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 420 E. Main St., Grafton, 62037
When was it listed? February 1998
Category. building
Also known as. Grafton MPS
Township. Quarry township
Architectural style. Queen Anne style architecture in the United States
National Register reference number. 98000065 - 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

5 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Charles Brainerd House between 2010 and 2011, burning about 1,516 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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	3
Debris and open burning	2

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
6 April 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	35 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	11406001
5 March 2010	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10305001
19 March 2010	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	10319003
17 November 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1,475 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	PERE MARQUETTE
20 October 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	1020002

Every fire recorded in Jersey County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Charles Brainerd House: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Columbia Quarry Company	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Grafton Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unnamed Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Western Whiting Company Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Jersey County

Storms near this property

31 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Grafton, the town this property stands in, in 31 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 13 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 5 flood, 3 flash flood. The reports record 1 death. 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
December 2015	Flash Flood	Grafton	1 killed	Up to four inches of rain fell causing flash flooding. Numerous roads were flooded. In Grafton, a 42 year old woman was walking home, possibly intoxicated. She was last seen on North Cedar Street at about 11 pm on December 26th, 2015. Authorities suspected she tried to cross a flooded roadway near a creek and was swept out to the Mississippi River and drowned. Her body was finally located March 10th, 2016 about 6 miles downstream. Cause of death was accidental drowning.
April 2013	Flood	Grafton	$5,000	The Mississippi River reached major flood levels along the border of Jersey County. The river crested on April 25th, but remained above flood stage into May. Damage was limited to a few closed roads.
June 2013	Flood	Grafton	$1,000	The Mississippi River bordering Jersey County started June in flood and rose to major flood levels cresting on the 4th. The river remained in flood into July. Damage was limited to a few closed roads.
May 2008	Flash Flood	Grafton	$1,000	Several rounds of thunderstorms over the course of the day produced flash flooding across much of the county. Local law enforcement reported water on many roads some of which were impassable.
November 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	$200	Several large trees were blown down along the Great River Road east of Grafton. The Illinois State Police later reported large trees down over the southern part of the county with one roof blown off near New Delhi.
March 2026	Tornado (EF1)	Grafton	-	A brief tornado was confirmed both with radar data and detailed photographs of damage. This tornado cause significant roof damage to a local restaurant, along with other miscellaneous to a local hotel and residence.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	Thunderstorm winds knocked down trees in Grafton.
August 2019	Flash Flood	Grafton	-	Up to 4 inches of rain fell in less than 5 hours causing flash flooding. Numerous roads were flooded and several cars were stuck in high water. No injuries were reported.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees onto Illinois Route 100 in Grafton. Also, in Dow, several trees were blown down.
June 2011	Hail	Grafton	-	Most of the hail was an inch or less in size.
July 2008	Flood	Grafton	-	The Mississippi River crested at Grafton, IL on July 1 at 30.43 feet. It fell below flood stage on July 18. For additional information about the flooding consult the June report.
August 2007	Flood	Grafton	-	Heavy rain upstream caused minor flooding on the Mississippi River. The river peaked about 1 food over flood stage and was still in flood when the month ended.
April 2003	Hail	Grafton	-	The County Sheriff reported golf ball size hail in Grafton.
May 1998	Hail	Grafton	-	Storm spotters reported that 3/4 inch hail fell for several minutes near Pere Marquette State Park.
May 1997	Hail	Grafton	-	County sheriff reported quarterr size hail.
April 2011	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
June 2010	Flood	Grafton	-	no account filed
February 2008	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
February 2008	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	no account filed
February 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Grafton	-	no account filed
May 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Grafton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jersey 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
John and Amelia McClintock House	0.2 miles	1994
Grafton Bank	0.2 miles	1994
Ruebel Hotel	0.2 miles	1994
Grafton Boat Works	0.3 miles	2022
Slaten-LaMarsh House	0.3 miles	1994
Grafton Historic District	0.5 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 98000065 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Jersey County	All 19 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.