Dr. John Quincy Howe House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1902.

From the record

“John Quincy Howe House is a notable house located in Phelps, New York. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the house is thought to be the only house in the state of New York with a two-story privy and the only house in the United States with a two-story brick privy.”
Wikipedia article Dr. John Quincy Howe House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 78 National Register listings published here for Ontario County · listed in 2002 · 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.
Listed as. Howe, Dr. John Quincy, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 66 Main St., Phelps, 14532
When was it listed? February 2002
Category. building
Town. Phelps town
Architectural style. Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada
National Register reference number. 01001564 - 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

125 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 125 fires within 5 miles of Dr. John Quincy Howe House between 2003 and 2020, burning about 97 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 36 were 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	66
Arson/incendiarism	36
Debris and open burning	12
Natural	4
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Smoking	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2

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
7 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
7 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
7 September 2007	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
27 September 2016	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
19 September 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 August 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
31 August 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
27 August 2008	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Ontario County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 24 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Dr. John Quincy Howe House: 15 past producers, 9 producers. 9 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Limestone, General, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Geneva Mine	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Geneva Plant	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Pat O'Connor No.1 Well	Salt	Past Producer
Phelps Quarry	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Past Producer
Five Points Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Five Points Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Gravel Pit No. 11	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Long Branch Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Long Branch Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Mackenzie Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Ontario County

Storms near this property

34 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Phelps, the town this property stands in, in 34 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 26 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 hail, 1 lightning. The reports record 3 injuries. 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
July 2001	Lightning	Phelps	3 hurt	no account filed
May 2002	Flash Flood	Phelps	$250,000	no account filed
August 2001	Flash Flood	Phelps	$40,000	no account filed
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$25,000	Law enforcement reported numerous trees and wires down from thunderstorm winds near Phelps. A grain bin collapsed from the wind.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$18,000	no account filed
October 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$15,000	Law enforcement reported trees downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$15,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$15,000	no account filed
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$15,000	no account filed
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$12,000	no account filed
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds downed trees and power lines.
May 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires down.
May 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires down.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	The Ontario County Sheriff reported trees and wires down.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$10,000	no account filed
January 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$8,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$5,000	An isolated thunderstorm moved onshore from Lake Ontario. The thunderstorm winds downed numerous trees in the town of Phelps.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$3,000	Tree downed onto a porch on Marbletown Road.
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$2,000	Trees and wires were downed.
September 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$2,000	Trees were reported down.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$1,000	Two trees downed, completely blocking Toll Road between Griffith Road and Case Road.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$500	Large tree downed blocking all of Cedar Swamp Rd.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$500	Tree downed onto Cedar Swamp Road blocking both lanes.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	$500	A tree was reported down onto Wheat Road.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	-	Tree on a house in McBurney road in Phelps.
April 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Phelps	-	Tree downed on a house with roof damage on Mary Ave.
July 2025	Tornado (EF2)	Phelps	-	The National Weather Service surveyed damage in the Town of \|Phelps in Ontario County from July 7 today. Damage began west of\|Melvin Hill Road with a few broken hardwood branches but quickly\|intensified to the east-southeast as multiple softwood trees\|were snapped and uprooted around two homes and a barn. While\|none of those structures received notable damage, multiple trees \|nearby saw their trunks snapped. Damage continued east-southeast\|to the north of County Road 23 with dozens of hardwood trees \|snapped on the north side of a large farm area. As the damage\|continued to the east-southeast, three residences received damage\|around the roundabout at the intersection of County Road 23 and\|Fort Hill Road. The worse damage was located just northwest of\|the roundabout, where an entire roof and portions of the wall of\|a home were destroyed. Nearby, another roof was fully destroyed,\|as well. A barn just south of the roundabout was shifted off its\|foundation, and a silo saw its roof about half removed. \|\|From the damage surveyed today, as well as multiple pictures, \|videos, and drone footage shared from multiple sources, the\|National Weather Service storm survey team determined the\|damage to be consistent with a tornado rated an EF-2 on the\|Enhanced Fujita Scale. Maximum winds were estimated at 115 mph.
August 2024	Flash Flood	Phelps	-	Multiple roads closed or with water flowing across in Phelps.
August 2018	Heavy Rain	Phelps	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Phelps	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Phelps	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ontario County

Maps showing this location

8 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1902 USGS Phelps quadrangle1:62500 - 7 printings
1943 USGS Phelps quadrangle1:31680
1950 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1953 USGS Phelps quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1965 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000
1983 USGS Canandaigua quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

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
Phelps Town Hall	under 500 feet	1996
St. John's Episcopal Church	0.1 miles	1978
First Baptist Church of Phelps	0.2 miles	1992
Philetus Swift House	2.0 miles	2005
Clifton Springs Sanitarium Historic District	4.1 miles	1990
Clifton Springs Sanitarium	4.1 miles	1979

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 01001564 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ontario County	All 78 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.