Photograph of Pontiac Commercial Historic District — Photograph by Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Pontiac Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

From the record

“The Pontiac Commercial Historic District is a primarily commercial historic district located roughly along East Huron and South Saginaw Streets, within the Woodward Avenue Loop, in Pontiac, Michigan. The core of the district, within the block bounded by Saginaw, Lawrence, Pike, and Wayne Streets, was originally listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.”
Wikipedia article Pontiac Commercial Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 87 National Register listings published here for Oakland County · listed in 1989 · category: District.

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

The listing

Address. Roughly E. Huron St. and S. Saginaw St. within loop of Wide Track Dr., Pontiac, 48342
When was it listed? June 1989
Category. district
City. Pontiac city
National Register reference number. 89000491 - 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

28 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Pontiac Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase) between 2018 and 2020, burning about 28 acres in total. 3 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
Equipment and vehicle use	10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10
Natural	3
Smoking	2
Recreation and ceremony	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
8 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP FD 0003804 - 2019
17 August 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	WATERFORD TOWNSHIP FD 0008643 - 2019
1 August 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	ROCHESTER HILLS FD 0004453 - 2019
4 July 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	AUBURN HILLS FD 0001651 - 2020
3 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	WATERFORD TOWNSHIP FD 0006862 - 2019
13 July 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP FD 0003315 - 2019
13 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	WATERFORD TOWNSHIP FD 0007257 - 2019
11 July 2019	Smoking	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	WATERFORD TOWNSHIP FD 0007188 - 2019

Every fire recorded in Oakland 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 Pontiac Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase): 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	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Bald Mt Plant No. 3	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Underwood Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Oakland County

Storms near this property

9 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pontiac, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1999 and 2011: 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 flash 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
June 2000	Flash Flood	Pontiac	$125,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Pontiac	$45,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Pontiac	$16,000	no account filed
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Pontiac	$10,000	A few trees were reported blown down, which took down power lines.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Pontiac	$10,000	A National Weather Service employee reported numerous large trees down throughout a subdivision near Waterford. A local newspaper confirmed reports of widespread trees down all across Waterford Township. A few homes received minor damages.
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Pontiac	$5,000	Trees limbs were downed, fencing destroyed, and windows of a home were damaged near Elizabeth Lake and Cooley Lake in Waterford.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Pontiac	-	A trained spotter estimated a 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust.
July 2000	Hail	Pontiac	-	no account filed
July 2000	Hail	Pontiac	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Oakland 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
Eagle Theater	0.1 miles	1984
Pontiac Commercial Historic District	0.1 miles	1984
Grinnell Brothers Music House	0.2 miles	1984
Central School	0.2 miles	1984
Fairgrove Avenue Historic District	0.4 miles	1985
Myrick-Palmer House	0.4 miles	1970

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 89000491 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Oakland 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.