John C. Blanchard House

Built in 1879 (Italianate architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

“Blanchard House was built as a private house located at 253 East Main Street in Ionia, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.”
Wikipedia article John C. Blanchard House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 16 National Register listings published here for Ionia County · listed in 1974 · category: Building · built in 1879, Italianate architecture.

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 as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Blanchard, John C., House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 253 E. Main St., Ionia, 48846
When was it listed? July 1974
Category. building
City. Ionia city
When was it built? 1879
Architectural style. Italianate architecture
National Register reference number. 74002346 - 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

18 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of John C. Blanchard House between 2004 and 2019, burning about 27 acres in total. 5 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
Natural	5
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5
Smoking	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Debris and open burning	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
7 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	IONIA DPS 0000287 - 2019
6 August 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	IONIA DPS 0000286 - 2019
14 August 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	IONIA DPS 0000295 - 2019
15 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	IONIA DPS 0000250 - 2019
15 June 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	IONIA DPS 0000130 - 2018
14 June 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	BERLIN-ORANGE FD 0000183 - 2018
7 May 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	BERLIN-ORANGE FD 0000165 - 2019
2 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	IONIA DPS 0000092 - 2018

Every fire recorded in Ionia County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of John C. Blanchard House: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Fire Clay (Refractory). Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Ionia Co. Road Comm. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Ionia Pottery Company Clay Pit	Fire Clay (Refractory)	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Ionia County

Storms near this property

17 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ionia, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 13 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$75,000	Several large trees were blown down and there were power outages in the Ionia area.
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$50,000	no account filed
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$25,000	Trees fell on two homes in Ionia and numerous tree limbs were blown down.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$25,000	Numerous trees were blown down in and near Ionia.
June 2003	Hail	Ionia	$25,000	Three quarters inch diameter hail was reported five miles northwest of Ionia. An isolated report from the same location indicated that a lone tree had been blown down.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$25,000	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$25,000	no account filed
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$20,000	Several trees were blown down near and over M-21 near to just west of Ionia. Law enforcement also reported several power lines were downed in Ionia.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$20,000	Several trees were blown down across Ionia county, with several trees down at Appletree and M-66.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$20,000	Several down tree limbs were reported in Ionia.
September 2006	Hail	Ionia	$15,000	The broadcast media reported three quarters inch diameter hail in Ionia.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$10,000	Several trees and power lines were blown down.
May 2003	Hail	Ionia	$10,000	A severe thunderstorm produced three quarters inch hail two miles east of Ionia.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$10,000	Several trees were blown down in Ionia.
April 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	$2,500	no account filed
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Ionia	-	One barn sustained significant wind damage.
February 1997	Flash Flood	Ionia	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ionia 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
Ionia Historic District	0.1 miles	1984
Hall-Fowler Memorial Library	0.2 miles	1971
Ionia County Courthouse	0.3 miles	1979
Lovell-Webber House	0.4 miles	1974
Ionia Downtown Commercial Historic District	0.4 miles	1984
William H. VanderHeyden House	1.1 miles	1990

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 74002346 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ionia 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.
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.