Elk Rapids First Methodist Episcopal Church

Built in 1901. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

From the record

“The Elk Rapids First Methodist Episcopal Church is a former church located at 301 Traverse Street in Elk Rapids, Michigan. The building now houses Elk Rapids Area Historical Museum.”
Wikipedia article Elk Rapids First Methodist Episcopal Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 6 National Register listings published here for Antrim County · listed in 2015 · category: Building · built in 1901, by Benjamin D. Price.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 301 Traverse St., Elk Rapids, 49629
When was it listed? December 2015
Category. building
Township. Elk Rapids township
When was it built? 1901
Architect. Benjamin D. Price
National Register reference number. 15000945 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

15 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Elk Rapids First Methodist Episcopal Church between 2003 and 2020, burning about 23 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
Equipment and vehicle use	9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
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
31 August 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MILTON TOWNSHIP FD 0000108 - 2019
18 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	ELK RAPIDS TOWNSHIP FD 0015642 - 2019
1 July 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	ELK RAPIDS TOWNSHIP FD 0012443 - 2018
23 June 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	PENINSULA TOWNSHIP FD 0000258 - 2019
9 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	PENINSULA TOWNSHIP FD 0000152 - 2018
7 May 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MILTON TOWNSHIP FD 0000030 - 2020
4 May 2003	Misuse of fire by a minor	4.1 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
26 May 2019	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.1 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	ANTRIM 02 - BLOOPER

Every fire recorded in Antrim County

Storms near this property

8 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elk Rapids, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1995 and 2015: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 tornado, 1 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
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Rapids	$4,000	Large trees downed along US-31.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Rapids	$2,000	A large tree was blown down on South Elk Lake Rd near Clearwater Point Road, blocking the roadway.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Rapids	-	Scattered trees and power lines down.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Rapids	-	6 inch diameter limbs down.
July 1999	Flash Flood	Elk Rapids	-	4 to 6 inches of water covered secondary roads.
August 1995	Tornado (F0)	Elk Rapids	-	North of Elk Rapids, a cold air waterspout came ashore with enough force to break some six inch limbs out of some trees, and create the classic "Freight Train" sound heard by at least four people in nearby houses. Some minor roof damage was also noted on one house. The tree damage was between two houses and the track was less than .1 mile long. The waterspout dissipated quickly after coming on shore. No convective activity was observed, by any radar, in northern lower Michigan during that night.
August 2015	Hail	Elk Rapids	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Elk Rapids	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Antrim 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

1 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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Hughes House	0.1 miles	1976

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 15000945 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Antrim County	All 6 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.