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Photograph of Van Buren County Courthouse
Photograph by Lawrence G. Miller ( Lawrence G. Miller on en.wikipedia ), CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Van Buren County Courthouse Complex

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

From the record

“The Van Buren County Courthouse is a government building located at 212 East Paw Paw Street in Paw Paw, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1977 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.”

Wikipedia article Van Buren County Courthouse (Michigan), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 9 National Register listings published here for Van Buren County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.

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 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Paw Paw St., Paw Paw, 49079
  • When was it listed? August 1979
  • Category. building
  • Township. Paw Paw township
  • Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
  • National Register reference number. 79001169 - 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

29 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Van Buren County Courthouse Complex between 2002 and 2020, burning about 30 acres in total. 1 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/undetermined20
Equipment and vehicle use6
Smoking1
Natural1
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPAW PAW VFD 0000165 - 2019
9 August 2019Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPAW PAW VFD 0000142 - 2019
5 August 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPAW PAW VFD 0000137 - 2019
2 August 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPAW PAW VFD 0000153 - 2018
19 August 2018Debris and open burning2.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesVANBUREN 02 - 38TH ST
13 August 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesLAWTON FD 0000078 - 2019
20 July 2002Smokingunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPAW PAW VFD 0000099 - 2018

Every fire recorded in Van Buren 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 Van Buren County Courthouse Complex: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Budzen PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Klett Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Van Buren County

Storms near this property

16 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paw Paw, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2004Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$50,000The general public reported that numerous trees were blown down in Paw Paw.
July 2003HailPaw Paw$50,000Two inch diameter hail was reported by area law enforcement in Paw Paw. Another report of three quarters inch hail was received from Paw Paw.
May 2000HailPaw Paw$50,000no account filed
December 2007Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$40,000A square yard of shingles was blown off a roof of an eight year old home. Downed trees and limbs were blocking county road 653.
June 2003HailPaw Paw$25,000Seven eighths inch diameter hail was reported with a severe thunderstorm in Paw Paw, and a tree was blown down in Mattawan.
August 2003Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$20,000Several trees were blown down in Paw Paw.
May 2004HailPaw Paw$15,000A trained spotter reported three quarters inch diameter hail with a severe thunderstorm five miles west of Paw Paw.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$15,000Tree limbs and power lines were downed in Paw Paw.
August 2003Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$10,000Severe thunderstorm wind gusts blew down four trees in Paw Paw and two trees three miles south of Lawton.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$2,500Scattered reports of trees and power lines down in Paw Paw Township.
August 1997Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw$2,500Scattered reports of power lines downed in and around Paw Paw.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw-Large trees down throughout Paw Paw.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw-A few trees were blown down across portions of Van Buren county, primarily in the vicinity of Paw Paw.
September 2008Tornado (EF1)Paw Paw-A tornado touched down just west of Paw Paw. Uprooted trees and broken limbs were found along with a twisted metal fence near a school. The tornado then moved into the southern section of the town of Paw Paw. Damage to a car dealership occurred when a section of metal roof was ripped off. A restaurant also sustained damage when trees were blown down.
August 1995Thunderstorm WindPaw Paw-Trees blown down in city by thunderstorm winds.
April 1994HailPaw Paw-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Van Buren 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

2 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 PropertyDistance Listed
Paw Paw City Hall0.1 miles1972
Houppert Winery Complex3.9 miles2000

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 79001169 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Van Buren CountyAll 9 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.