Emerson Place

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1895.

From the record

“Emerson Place is a historic townhouse complex located at Watertown in Jefferson County, New York. It was built in 1904 and is a two-story, flat-roofed, brick, nearly symmetrical set of eleven units in the Colonial Revival style.”
Wikipedia article Emerson Place, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 144 National Register listings published here for Jefferson County · listed in 2003 · 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. 20-30 Emerson Place, Watertown, 13601
When was it listed? April 2003
Category. building
City. Watertown city
Architectural style. Colonial Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 03000241 - 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

379 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 379 fires within 5 miles of Emerson Place between 2000 and 2020, burning about 285 acres in total. 22 started naturally. 87 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	182
Arson/incendiarism	87
Debris and open burning	40
Smoking	26
Natural	22
Equipment and vehicle use	9
Recreation and ceremony	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3

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 September 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
8 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
7 September 2019	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 September 2015	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
4 September 2005	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
3 September 2007	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
3 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
29 September 2008	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Jefferson County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Emerson Place: 13 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Limestone, General, 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
Watertown Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Watertown Quarry and Mill	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Anthony Marzano Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Black River Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Black River Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Black River Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Bolle Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Brookside Drive Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Brookside Drive Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Gifford Street Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Jefferson County

Storms near this property

45 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Watertown, the town this property stands in, in 45 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 37 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 flash flood, 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
April 2014	Flood	Watertown	$250,000	no account filed
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$40,000	no account filed
January 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$35,000	no account filed
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$20,000	no account filed
January 1998	Flash Flood	Watertown	$20,000	no account filed
August 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a large tree in the City of Watertown.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$15,000	no account filed
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$12,000	no account filed
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires downed by thunderstorm winds.
August 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	East Watertown	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees down by thunderstorm winds across Monroe Avenue.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	Officials reported trees and wires downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires down.
September 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires down.
September 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	Law enforcement reported trees and wires down.
April 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	no account filed
September 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$10,000	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$8,000	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$7,000	no account filed
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$5,000	Several trees down on wires along route 3 in Watertown.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	East Watertown	$5,000	Several trees down on wires along route 3 going out of Watertown.
August 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$5,000	Thunderstorms ahead of a cold front produced damaging winds which downed trees and power lines. In Sinclairville, one man was injured when a falling tree pinned him in his automobile.
June 2006	Hail	Watertown	$5,000	no account filed
July 1995	Hail	Watertown	$5,000	no account filed
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$5,000	no account filed
March 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$2,000	Trees and wires downed in the City of Watertown.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$2,000	Power lines and pole downed on Sherman Street.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$1,500	Tree and wires downed at Franklin and Hamilton St.
January 1998	Flash Flood	Watertown	$1,000	no account filed
January 1998	Flash Flood	Watertown	$1,000	no account filed
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$500	Tree downed at Main and Mill Street.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	$500	Large tree downed on Keyes Ave and Clay Street.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	East Watertown	$500	Tree downed across County Road 160.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	-	Tree downed onto a house on Academy Street.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Watertown	-	Law enforcement reported a power pole downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2019	Hail	Watertown	-	no account filed
July 2012	Hail	Watertown	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Jefferson County

Maps showing this location

12 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.

1895 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:62500
1898 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1908 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:62500
1909 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1943 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:31680
1950 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1962 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1964 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Utica quadrangle1:250000
1985 USGS Watertown 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
Saint Paul's Episcopal Church	0.4 miles	1997
Public Square Historic District	0.5 miles	1984
Roswell P. Flower Memorial Library	0.5 miles	1980
Paddock Arcade	0.6 miles	1976
Watertown Masonic Temple	0.6 miles	1980
Public Square Historic District (Boundary Increase)	0.6 miles	2016

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 03000241 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Jefferson County	All 144 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.