Downs House and Farm

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

One of 338 National Register listings published here for Suffolk County · listed in 2016 · category: Building.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. 5793 Sound Ave., Riverhead, 11901
When was it listed? May 2016
Category. building
Town. Riverhead town
National Register reference number. 16000308 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

225 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 225 fires within 5 miles of Downs House and Farm between 2000 and 2020, burning about 97 acres in total. 13 started naturally. 18 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	151
Arson/incendiarism	18
Smoking	14
Equipment and vehicle use	13
Natural	13
Recreation and ceremony	8
Debris and open burning	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
9 September 2014	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
30 September 2018	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
3 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
28 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
26 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	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 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Storms near this property

8 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Riverhead, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 2000 and 2020: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 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 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Riverhead	$5,000	Trees were reported down on Marcy, Sweezy and Hamilton Avenues.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Riverhead	$3,000	There were multiple reports of trees and wires down throughout Riverhead.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Riverhead	$3,000	A large tree was reported down on a house along Wilson Avenue.
November 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Riverhead	$1,000	Tree down on Union Avenue.
June 2007	Hail	Riverhead	-	no account filed
May 2001	Lightning	Riverhead	-	no account filed
July 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Riverhead	-	no account filed
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Riverhead	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Suffolk County

Maps showing this location

12 surveys

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

1903 USGS Riverhead quadrangle1:62500
1904 USGS Riverhead quadrangle1:62500 - 9 printings
1943 USGS Riverhead quadrangle1:62500
1947 USGS Mattituck quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Mattituck quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island East quadrangle1:100000 - 3 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
Hallock-Bilunas Farmstead	0.4 miles	2003
Hallock Homestead	0.9 miles	1984
Daniel and Henry P. Tuthill Farm	1.8 miles	2015
Jamesport Meeting House	1.9 miles	2009
Jedediah Hawkins House	1.9 miles	2008
Southold Milestone 7	2.0 miles	2017

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 16000308 in Record Group 79.
Suffolk County	All 338 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.
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.