Federal Building

Built in 1909 (Renaissance Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

From the record

“The United States Post Office at 209 East Portage Avenue in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, is an historic building which has served various purposes since its construction in the early 20th century.”
Wikipedia article Old Federal Building (Sault Ste. Marie), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 26 National Register listings published here for Chippewa County · listed in 1977 · category: Building · built in 1909, Renaissance Revival architecture, by James Knox Taylor.

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.
Address. 209 E. Portage Ave., Sault Ste. Marie, 49783
When was it listed? September 1977
Category. building
City. Sault Ste. Marie city
When was it built? 1909
Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
Architect. James Knox Taylor
National Register reference number. 77000711 - 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

15 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Federal Building between 1992 and 2020, burning about 151 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	7
Debris and open burning	5
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Smoking	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
9 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	SOO TOWNSHIP FD 0031-19 - 2019
22 June 1995	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
9 May 1992	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 May 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	BRUCE TOWNSHIP VFD 2016006 - 2019
7 May 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	ALGONQUIN
5 May 2012	Smoking	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	EAST 5 MILE
27 May 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	SOO TOWNSHIP FD 0011-20 - 2020
21 May 1994	Debris and open burning	12 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Chippewa County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Federal Building: 8 producers, 1 past producer. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silica, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Beadle's Brick Yard Clay Pit	Fire Clay (Refractory)	Past Producer
Montero Sand Pit	Silica	Producer
C G Sanderson No. 1 Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
City Limits Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Fornicola Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Gordon Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
I L Whitehead Co Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Montero Excavating Inc Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Osborn Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Chippewa 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
Old Fort Brady	under 500 feet	1971
St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral	under 500 feet	1984
Chippewa County Courthouse	0.2 miles	1984
John Johnston House	0.2 miles	1970
Central Methodist Episcopal Church	0.2 miles	1984
Gowan Block	0.3 miles	2010

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 77000711 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Chippewa County	All 26 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.