Shelden Avenue Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

From the record

“The Shelden Avenue Historic District is a commercial historic district located along Shelden, Lake, & Montezuma Avenues in Houghton, Michigan. The district contains 43 contributing buildings in an area of 22 acres.”
Wikipedia article Shelden Avenue Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 41 National Register listings published here for Houghton County · listed in 1987 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Shelden, Lake, & Montezuma Aves., Houghton, 49931
When was it listed? December 1987
Category. district
City. Houghton city
National Register reference number. 87002154 - 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 Shelden Avenue Historic District between 1992 and 2019, burning about 432 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	9
Debris and open burning	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Recreation and ceremony	1
Equipment and vehicle use	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
25 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	DOLLAR BAY VFD 0000012 - 2019
12 September 1995	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.3 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
22 July 2002	Misuse of fire by a minor	3.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
11 July 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HANCOCK FD 0000025 - 2018
6 June 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	400 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	RICE LAKE
14 June 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	QUINCY-FRANKLIN-HANCOCK VFD 2019006 - 2019
7 May 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 May 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Houghton County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 62 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 62 workings within 5 miles of Shelden Avenue Historic District: 38 past producers, 17 prospects, 7 producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Copper, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Copper, Silver, Silver. 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	Recorded
Sturgeon Clay Pit	Fire Clay (Refractory)	Past Producer
Gedvillas Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Isle Royale Amygdaloid	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1852, 1968
Isle Royale Mine	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1853, 1885
Pewabic Amygdaloid	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1857, 1931
Superior Sand and Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Wash Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Isle Royale	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1852, 1853
Quincy	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1856
Quincy Mine	Copper, Silver	Past Producer	1856, 1925

Every working recorded in Houghton County

Storms near this property

16 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Houghton, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail. 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 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	$3,000	There were reports over the police scanner of trees down in Houghton.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	$1,000	Multiple downed trees have been observed by law enforcement in the City of Houghton. The public has been observed cleaning up the debris.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	$500	A video was relayed via social media of an eight-inch diameter tree downed in Houghton.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	$500	A tree was reported down across Highway M-26. Time of the report was estimated from radar.
July 2020	Hail	Houghton	-	There was a public report of one-inch diameter hail in Houghton.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	Eight-inch diameter tree blown down.
April 2004	Hail	Houghton	-	Nickle sized hail was reported.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	A 14 inch diameter tree was blown down.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down, a metal roof was peeled off a warehouse, an empty semi-trailer was overturned, and a camper trailer was tipped over.
June 2001	Hail	Houghton	-	Golf-ball sized hail.
June 2001	Hail	Houghton	-	Dime sized hail.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	A large tree blown down, partially blocking the highway.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	61 mph gust measured at KCMX ASOS.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	Many trees down along M-38 and M-64 in Ontonagon and Houghton Counties.
September 2007	Hail	Houghton	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Houghton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Houghton 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
Shelden-Dee Block	under 500 feet	1982
Douglass House	under 500 feet	1982
Houghton County Courthouse	0.2 miles	1975
Saint Ignatius Loyola Church	0.2 miles	1987
John J. Michels House	0.5 miles	1991
Ransom B. Shelden House	0.7 miles	1980

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 87002154 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Houghton County	All 41 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.