Built in 1835 (Greek Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
From the record
“Thomas House is a single-family home located at 613 East Cass Street in Schoolcraft, Michigan. The house is also known as the Underground Railway House, due to its use as a stop in the Underground Railroad.”
Wikipedia article Dr. Nathan M. Thomas House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 60 National Register listings published here for Kalamazoo County · listed in 1982 · category: Building · built in 1835, Greek Revival architecture.
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture, Federal architecture
National Register reference number.82002843- 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
9 since 2018
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Dr. Nathan M. Thomas House
between 2018 and 2019, burning about 9 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
Equipment and vehicle use
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Schoolcraft, the town this property stands in, in 25 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 17 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 1 tornado, 1 funnel cloud.
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.
Severe thunderstorm winds in excess of 80 mph and hail up to golf ball size impacted far southwestern and south central Kalamazoo county as a bow echo moved into Schoolcraft east to Vicksburg. ||The most significant damage occurred across west southwest portions of the town of Schoolcraft, where the siding of the western sides of many homes was shredded by the wind driven large hail. About a dozen irrigation pivots were destroyed and several trees were blown down. ||A local RV dealership had several of it's vehicles rolled over and damaged. Power lines were blown down and a semi truck was tipped over 1 mile south of downtown Schoolcraft. A wind gust to 79 mph was measured one mile northeast of Vicksburg by a co-op observer with a home weather station a minute before midnight.
Numerous trees and power lines were blown down mainly across southern Kalamazoo county from around Schoolcraft east to Vicksburg. Winds of up to 70 to 75 mph were estimated. Some trees fell on area homes and cars.
Severe thunderstorms produced very high wind gusts of up to 75 to 85 m.p.h. and also several reports of large hail across southern Kalamazoo county. ||The worst of the damage occurred around 5:52 p.m. in the area south of Portage and north of Vicksburg. A path of damage one mile wide and one and a half miles long started near the Portage Road and U Avenue intersection. The damage continued northeast to just south of the 24th street and S Avenue intersection. ||Highest wind speeds of 75 to 85 m.p.h. were determined by NOAA's National Weather Service Grand Rapids storm survey team. Within this|area a roof on a pole barn was partially blown off. A garage|door was blown in and some roofing and siding material was stripped off of several homes. Many large healthy trees were uprooted or snapped off. Some trees were lying on houses and all damage was lying to the northeast indicating straight line winds.
Wind damage began 4.5 miles southwest of Vicksburg and continued 8.5 miles to the northeast. The greatest width of the damage was approximately 2.5 miles and was widest towards the end of the damage swath. Primary damage was to trees with scattered large limbs and isolated trees uprooted. The greatest concentration of damage, rated EF-0, occurred just southwest of downtown Vicksburg. In this area an irrigation pivot was blown over and several 25 pound 1 foot by 3 foot plastic packing trays were lofted over a one to two story industrial building and blown up to 200 yards downwind. Several large trees were also uprooted in downtown Vicksburg near the intersection of S. Kalamazoo and Prairie Streets. The trees knocked down several wires on residential streets.
A trained weather spotter reported approximately 20 trees snapped off, 12 trees uprooted, power lines downed, and minor structural damage in an area approximately 1.5 miles south of the village of Schoolcraft. Structural damage included: windows blown out of 2 homes and 1 home with siding torn off, one barn with large doors blown off and roof damage and another barn with a roof blown off at 5348 XY Avenue; 1 home with a garage door buckled out and siding damage caused by a fallen tree at 15835 Prairie Rhonde St.; a child's outdoor play set destroyed at 5802 Woodbrook Ln.; and minor structural damage done to Carter Lumber Company (which included a large overhanging storage area blown up and off, 3 large doors blown out, many stacks of lumber toppled, and several fences destroyed). Damage was estimated at $50,000. No injuries were reported.
A very brief touchdown of a F0 tornado occurred two miles south southwest of Schoolcraft in an open field. This was a landspout type of weak tornado which resulted in no injuries and no significant damage.
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
4 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.
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.
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