Wendover

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

From the record

“Wendover, also known as Frontier Nursing Service or Big House, is a historic house and former medical care facility near Hyden, Kentucky. Built in 1925, it is notable for its association with the American effort to professionalize midwifery, led by Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965).”
Wikipedia article Wendover (Hyden, Kentucky), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 5 National Register listings published here for Leslie County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

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

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. S of Hyden off KY 80, Hyden, 41749
When was it listed? October 1975
Category. building
Census division. Hyden
National Register reference number. 75000792 - 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

203 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 203 fires within 5 miles of Wendover between 1993 and 2020, burning about 8,014 acres in total. None started naturally. 44 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	53
Arson/incendiarism	44
Recreation and ceremony	22
Railroad operations and maintenance	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
4 September 2007	Debris and open burning	55 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
29 September 2007	Recreation and ceremony	799 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
26 September 2007	Debris and open burning	25 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
20 September 2007	Debris and open burning	90 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
19 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
12 September 1999	Arson/incendiarism	50 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
31 August 1999	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named
16 August 2008	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Kentucky Division of Forestry	not named

Every fire recorded in Leslie County

Storms near this property

60 of 70 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hyden, the town this property stands in, in 70 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 37 thunderstorm wind, 20 hail, 5 heavy rain, 4 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$75,000	Highway depts were called to remove numerous trees and other debris from roadways countywide. The damage was caused by thunderstorm wind gusts.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$60,000	WYMT news reported from Leslie County about numerous trees and power lines that were downed along Owls Nest Road. one of these trees fell on a mobile home, destroying it. Thankfully no one was injured.
January 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$50,000	One tree was blown down in Hyden. Multiple trees and power lines were blown down elsewhere throughout the county by wind gusts estimated at 67 mph.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$30,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in the Hyden area. There were sporadic power outages also occurring in northern Leslie county.
February 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$25,000	Numerous trees were blown down around the county.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$20,000	A roof was blown off of a porch on Middle Fork Road. A tree was also blown onto a house on Highway 421, and trees were blown down in the Wooten area.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$10,000	Leslie County received at least ten reports of trees down with power outages throughout the county, impacting major thoroughfares, including US-421 and KY-80. Multiple storms moved through from approximately 1:30pm until 2:50pm EDT leading to the tree and powerline damage.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$10,000	Thunderstorm wind gusts downed numerous power lines around the county; leaving around 3500 people without power.
May 1998	Hail	Hyden	$10,000	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Hyden	$8,000	Nickel size hail fell for one to two minutes. A wind gust estimated at 50 mph brought down several two to three inch diameter tree limbs and an eight inch diameter tree.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$7,000	Several trees were down across the county including in Hyden, Middlefork and Bull Creek.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$7,000	A one foot diameter tree was blown down and onto a house. A 2 foot diameter tree was blown down and across Osborne Fork Road. Nickel size hail also occurred at this location.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$5,000	Power lines were blown down on Camp Creek Rd. A few trees were blown down elsewhere in the county.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$5,000	Trees were blown down.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$5,000	Trees were blown down on Highway 80.
February 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$5,000	Numerous tree limbs greater than 2 inches torn from trees over a 15 minute period by thunderstorm wind gusts.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$5,000	Trees were blown down in the area. One tree was blown onto a home.
July 2000	Flash Flood	Hyden	$5,000	Flash flooding caused Pebble Creek Drive to be completely washed out.
May 1998	Hail	Hyden	$5,000	no account filed
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$4,000	One tree blown over onto power lines at 61 Ratliff and 421.
January 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$3,000	A small storage building was destroyed near the county school bus garage along U.S. Highway 421; parts of the building were blown off into U.S. Highway 421 by winds estimated at 62 mph.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$3,000	Downed trees taking phone and power lines down at multiple locations around Hyden.
April 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$3,000	Tree fell on residence and caused roof damage.
March 2015	Flood	Hyden	$1,000	Laurel Fork Lane was partially flooded by Rockhouse Creek.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$1,000	A large tree was blown down across the road at Coon Creek fire department.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$1,000	A 12 inch diameter tree was blocking Osborne Fork Road.
January 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	$1,000	Tin roof partially blown off home.
January 2020	Heavy Rain	Hyden	-	Earlier day heavy rainfall led to a large mudslide along U.S. Highway 421 near Hyden. This caused large trees and rocks to fall into the road, subsequently blocking both lanes of U.S. 421 in Hyden in front of the high school.
February 2019	Heavy Rain	Hyden	-	A trained spotter reported a mudslide on Hospital Hill in Hyden, due to recent persistent rainfall.
April 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Numerous trees were blown down from Wooton to Hyden.
June 2017	Hail	Hyden	-	A citizen reported nickel sized hail near Hyden.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Dispatch relayed a report of a few trees blown down in Hyden.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	A tree was blown down on Hwy 80.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Power lines were blown down.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Trees were blown down and onto Hwy 421 near the local dispatch.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Several trees were blown down.
July 2014	Hail	Hyden	-	Quarter size hail was observed near Hyden.
April 2013	Flood	Hyden	-	Bull Creek Road had one lane flooded due to a backed up culvert.
May 2010	Heavy Rain	Hyden	-	A trained spotter reported that 5.05 inches of rain had fallen since 6 pm on May 2nd four miles northwest of Hyden and that Osborne Fork was 2/3 bankful.
February 2008	Hail	Hyden	-	Pea to nickel sized hail fell in Hyden.
May 2007	Hail	Hyden	-	Nickel sized hail.
May 2007	Hail	Hyden	-	Quarter sized hail.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Numerous trees down countywide including Hyden, Wolfcreek, Stinnet, Smilex, Thousandsticks. Widespread power outages.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	A few trees down and some crop damage on Highway 421.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Numerous trees were down in the vicinity of Hyden on Highways 257, 1780, 80, and 699.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Four trees were down on Highway 80.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Trees were down and completely blocking Cutshin Road.
January 2002	Heavy Rain	Hyden	-	Kentucky highway 1850 and 758 were reported by the 24 Hour Warning Point to be impassable due to rockslides and mudslides caused by heavy rain.
January 2002	Flash Flood	Hyden	-	Wendover Road was impassable due to high water.
January 2002	Flash Flood	Hyden	-	Water was over Cutshin Road and was reported by the 24 Hour Warning Point.
January 2002	Heavy Rain	Hyden	-	The 24 Hour Warning Point reported that a mudslide was triggered on Wooten Road.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Trees were blown down.
August 2001	Flash Flood	Hyden	-	Heavy rains caused Hurricane Creek Road to go under water.
October 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Trees were blown down.
July 2000	Flood	Hyden	-	Mudslides reported on Bull Creek Road.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	Trees down.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Hyden	-	A tree was down near Leslie County High School and across HWY 1780 near Warbranch.
June 2015	Hail	Hyden	-	no account filed
April 2015	Hail	Hyden	-	no account filed
April 2012	Hail	Hyden	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Leslie 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
Frontier Nursing Service	2.7 miles	1991
Wooton Presbyterian Center	5.1 miles	1979
Roderick McIntosh Farm	5.7 miles	1991

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 75000792 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Leslie County	All 5 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.