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Photograph of Portland First Congregational Church
Photograph by Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Portland First Congregational Church

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

From the record

“The Portland First Congregational Church is a historic church located at 421 E. The original Greek Revival style church was built in 1853 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.”

Wikipedia article Portland First Congregational Church, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 16 National Register listings published here for Ionia County · listed in 1984 · 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 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 421 E. Bridge St., Portland, 48875
  • When was it listed? December 1984
  • Category. building
  • Township. Portland township
  • Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
  • National Register reference number. 84000542 - 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 Portland First Congregational Church between 2018 and 2020, burning about 9 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/undetermined7
Equipment and vehicle use1
Natural1

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
31 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDELTA TOWNSHIP FD 1910526 - 2019
13 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPORTLAND AREA FIRE AUTHORITY 0000057 - 2019
11 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesWESTPHALIA TOWNSHIP FD WFD1950 - 2019
28 June 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDELTA TOWNSHIP FD 199847 - 2019
4 April 2019Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPORTLAND AREA FIRE AUTHORITY 0000038 - 2019
11 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDELTA TOWNSHIP FD 1825251 - 2018
26 March 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesDELTA TOWNSHIP FD 198143 - 2019
14 March 2020Natural1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesWESTPHALIA TOWNSHIP FD WFD2020 - 2020

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 Portland First Congregational Church: 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
Ionia Co. Road Comm. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Ionia Co. Road Comm. PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Ionia County

Storms near this property

13 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portland, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
February 2019FloodPortland$400,000An ice jam formed and held in Portland for three weeks, resulting in significant flooding and around 200,000 dollars in damage to public facilities.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindPortland$150,000Hundreds of trees were blown down resulting in 24-hour power outages and damage to houses and garages. A grain bin and two pole barns were blown down east of the city.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindPortland$50,000Multiple trees and limbs were blown down in the Portland area and across portions of the county.
December 2007Thunderstorm WindPortland$40,000Trees and power lines were blown down onto Grand River avenue.
June 2000Thunderstorm WindPortland$25,000no account filed
July 2004HailPortland$20,000Two inch diameter hail was reported by broadcast media one mile northeast of Portland.
May 2008Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000Law enforcement in Portland reported that several trees were blown down.
June 2004HailPortland$5,000A trained spotter in Portland reported one inch diameter hail.
July 2004Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000Trees were blown down across a road two miles northwest of Portland.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindPortland$5,000no account filed
April 2026HailPortland-Ping pong size hail from media and the public.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindPortland-Downed trees.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindPortland-Numerous trees were downed in the Portland area. Damage estimates were not available.

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

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
Portland Downtown Historic District2.6 miles2005
Portland High School2.7 miles2016

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 84000542 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ionia CountyAll 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.