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Photograph of Elkanah Watson House
Photograph by Mwanner, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Elkanah Watson House

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1894.

From the record

“The Elkanah Watson House is a historic house at Lake and South Streets in Port Kent, New York. Built in 1828, it was the home of Elkanah Watson (1758-1842), a businessman and diplomat best known for founding and promoting the idea of agricultural fairs.”

Wikipedia article Elkanah Watson House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 114 National Register listings published here for Essex County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · a National Historic Landmark.

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

The listing

  • Listed as. Watson, Elkanah, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. 3 mi. E of U.S. 9, Port Kent, 12975
  • When was it listed? October 1966
  • Category. building
  • Town. Chesterfield town
  • National Register reference number. 66000518 - 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

89 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Elkanah Watson House between 2001 and 2020, burning about 58 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 10 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/undetermined49
Natural10
Arson/incendiarism10
Power generation/transmission/distribution8
Equipment and vehicle use5
Smoking4
Debris and open burning3

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2007Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
7 September 2016Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
26 September 2016Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
22 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
22 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
11 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
4 August 2016Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
4 August 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named

Every fire recorded in Essex County

Mines and quarries near this property

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Elkanah Watson House: 5 past producers, 2 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Granite, Iron, Titanium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Port Kent Beach Sand DepositTitanium, IronOccurrence
Jackson MineIronPast Producer1835, 1865
Southern QuarryGranitePast Producer1880, 1890
Unnamed ProspectGraniteOccurrence1885
Grasshopper PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Martin PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Zoli PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Zoli PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Essex County

Storms near this property

8 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Port Kent, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 2004 and 2013: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 lightning. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2005LightningPort Kent$50,000no account filed
September 2012Thunderstorm WindPort Kent$15,000Numerous trees and power lines down as well as road closures.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindPort Kent$10,000no account filed
July 2013Thunderstorm WindPort Kent$5,000Several large tree limbs down.
July 2004Thunderstorm WindPort Kent$5,000no account filed
July 2007HailPort Kent-Nickel size hail reported.
July 2006HailPort Kent-no account filed
July 2005HailPort Kent-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Essex County

Maps showing this location

11 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.

Listed places nearby

5 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Kessel Park Inn3.3 miles2023
Rembrandt Hall3.9 miles1983
Tomlinson House3.9 miles1983
Adsit Log House7.3 miles1992
Ligonier Point Historic District7.6 miles2013

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 66000518 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Essex CountyAll 114 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.