Grindstone Island Upper Schoolhouse

Built in 1885. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. 5 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

“Grindstone Island Upper Schoolhouse is a historic one-room school building located on Grindstone Island, Clayton, Jefferson County, New York. It was built in 1885, and is a 1 1/2-story, three bay by one bay, frame building on a granite foundation.”
Wikipedia article Grindstone Island Upper Schoolhouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 144 National Register listings published here for Jefferson County · listed in 2012 · category: Building · built in 1885.

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. 41591 Cross Island Rd., Clayton, 13624
When was it listed? August 2012
Category. building
Town. Clayton town
When was it built? 1885
National Register reference number. 12000509 - 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

31 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Grindstone Island Upper Schoolhouse between 2003 and 2020, burning about 30 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 8 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	16
Arson/incendiarism	8
Natural	6
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
5 September 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6.3 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
26 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
24 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
20 September 2016	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
7 August 2008	Natural	3.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 July 2018	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
30 July 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Jefferson County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Grindstone Island Upper Schoolhouse: 4 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Granite, Limestone, General. 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
Acton Island Quarry	Granite	Past Producer
Clayton Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Clayton Quarry	Limestone, General	Past Producer
Carlisle Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Clayton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Crystal Spring Road Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Lyme Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Jefferson County

Storms near this property

9 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clayton, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 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
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$40,000	no account filed
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$20,000	Law enforcement reported utility poles and lines down.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$5,000	Trees and wires down.
July 2006	Hail	Clayton	$5,000	no account filed
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$5,000	no account filed
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$2,000	Trees and wires were downed.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$2,000	Trees and wires were reported down.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Clayton	$1,000	Trees were reported down.
July 2010	Hail	Clayton	-	Winds were estimated to 60 mph as well.

Every storm recorded in Jefferson County

Maps showing this location

5 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.

1903 USGS Grindstone quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1943 USGS Grindstone quadrangle1:31680
1954 USGS Kingston quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1958 USGS Gananoque quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Cape Vincent 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
Clayton Historic District	2.9 miles	1985
George T. Robinson House	2.9 miles	2017
Capt. Simon Johnston House	2.9 miles	1982
Clayton Historic District (Boundary Increase)	2.9 miles	1997
Fairview Manor	3.3 miles	2007
Thousand Island Park Historic District	5.3 miles	2022

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 12000509 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.