A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1859. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.
From the record
“The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France.”
Wikipedia article Cooper Union, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 601 National Register listings published here for New York County · listed in 1966 · category: Building · built in 1859 · a National Historic Landmark.
National Register reference number.66000540- 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.
Then and now
1889 to 1995
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
106 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18891995
Fires near this property
1,318 since 1995
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 1,318 fires within 5 miles of Cooper Union
between 1995 and 2020, burning about 410 acres in total. 87 started naturally. 101 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
844
Arson/incendiarism
101
Natural
87
Smoking
87
Equipment and vehicle use
62
Debris and open burning
48
Misuse of fire by a minor
45
Fireworks
23
Recreation and ceremony
10
Other causes
4
Power generation/transmission/distribution
4
Railroad operations and maintenance
3
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
12 workings within 5 miles of Cooper Union: 8 occurrences, 2 unknowns, 2 past producers.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Graphite, Manganese. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
New York, the town this property stands in, in 44 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 16 flash flood, 16 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 4 flood.
The reports record 7 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.
Windows were blown out at the Rector Place and Gateway Plaza. Numerous trees were knocked over. There was damage to the revolving door at The Solaire in River Terrace.
Numerous trees were reported down along South End Avenue, especially between Albany and Liberty Streets. Eight trees fell into Merchant's River House, damaging the outdoor seating area.
The north tube of the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan was closed due to flooding at the New Jersey-bound entrance. Two cars also became stuck in flood waters on 10th Ave. in the West Village.
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.
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.
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.
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