BlockFrom the record
One of 75 National Register listings published here for Madison County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Merritt Jones Tavern
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Listed as. Jones, Merritt, Tavern - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
- Address. 1 mi. S of Big Hill on U.S. 421, Big Hill, 40403
- When was it listed? April 1973
- Category. building
- Census division. Berea
- National Register reference number. 73000817 - 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
106 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 106 fires within 5 miles of Merritt Jones Tavern between 1997 and 2020, burning about 1,584 acres in total. None started naturally. 17 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 | 45 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 28 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 17 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2008 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 16 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 15 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 14 September 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 14 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 4 June 2000 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 25 June 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 7 April 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
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 milesOther 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berea College Forest | 1.8 miles | 2003 | |
 | Lincoln Hall | 4.8 miles | 1974 |
| Churchill Weavers | 4.9 miles | 2014 | |
| Berea College Square Commercial Historic District | 5.0 miles | 2020 | |
 | Boone Tavern Hotel | 5.0 miles | 1996 |
| Berea Downtown Commercial and Residential Historic District | 5.3 miles | 2020 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 73000817 in Record Group 79. |
| Madison County | All 75 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.