Fountain-Bessac House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“The Fountain-Bessac House, also known as the Fountain-Haeussler House, is a private house located at 102 W. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1986 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.”
Wikipedia article Fountain-Bessac House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 87 National Register listings published here for Washtenaw County · listed in 1988 · 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. 102 W. Main St., Manchester, 48158
When was it listed? September 1988
Category. building
City. Manchester city
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 88001833 - 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

8 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Fountain-Bessac House between 1996 and 2019, burning about 105 acres in total. 2 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	3
Natural	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Debris and open burning	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
12 July 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000218 - 2018
14 May 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000187 - 2019
22 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000133 - 2018
20 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000129 - 2018
2 April 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000126 - 2019
19 April 2018	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000128 - 2018
11 April 1996	Debris and open burning	98 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named
12 December 2019	Natural	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP FD 0000481 - 2019

Every fire recorded in Washtenaw County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Fountain-Bessac House: 1 producer. 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	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Washtenaw County Road Comm. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Washtenaw County

Storms near this property

34 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Manchester, the town this property stands in, in 34 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 25 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 1 lightning, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2008	Flood	Manchester	$200,000	no account filed
December 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	$10,000	no account filed
March 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	$10,000	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	$5,000	Wires reported down.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	$2,000	A 14 inch diameter tree was blown over. Power lines were also reported down, with a power pole snapped.
July 2001	Lightning	Manchester	$2,000	Lightning struck a house. Only minor damage was reported.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	$2,000	no account filed
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Numerous trees reported blown down with damage to a barn.
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Trees and power lines observed down.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Power lines reported down over the roadway.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	A 24 inch diameter tree was reported down.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	A tree was blown down.
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Emergency Manager reported 2 twelve inch limbs blown down.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Trees were reported blown down.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Trees and power lines were reported blown down.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Local law enforcement reported large tree limbs and wires down.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Spotters reported a tree blown down on M-52.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Trained spotters reported a two and half foot tree blown down.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	A trained spotter reported trees and wires down.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	The emergency manager reported 4 two foot trees blown down.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Emergency management reported 9 inch diameter tree limbs blown down.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Emergency management reported 7 inch diameter tree limbs blown down.
May 2001	Hail	Manchester	-	Thunderstorms developed just north of a warm front that was moving northeast into far southern Michigan. One storm in Washtenaw County briefly reached severe levels. The most notable part of the storms was the heavy rain, with estimates of 5 to 7 inches of rain in a few hours in parts of Washtenaw, Lenawee, and Monroe Counties. The heavy rain produced a lot of nuisance standing water, but no flash flooding. However, some river flooding did result (see following).
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	Spotters reported large trees blown down by 60 mph wind gusts.
July 2016	Hail	Manchester	-	no account filed
July 2014	Hail	Manchester	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Manchester	-	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	no account filed
April 2001	Hail	Manchester	-	no account filed
July 2001	Hail	Manchester	-	no account filed
April 2000	Hail	Manchester	-	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Manchester	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Washtenaw 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

1 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Goodyear Block	under 500 feet	1993

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88001833 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Washtenaw County	All 87 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.