Photograph of Thomas Indian School — Photograph by Historic American Building Surveys, Engineering Records, Landscape Surveys, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Thomas Indian School- Infirmary

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1905.

From the record

“Thomas Indian School, also known as the Thomas Asylum of Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, is a historic school and national historic district located near Irving at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Erie County, New York. The institution is remembered today both as a significant local institution and as a site of cultural trauma for the Seneca and other Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) peoples.”
Wikipedia article Thomas Indian School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 283 National Register listings published here for Erie County · listed in 1973 · 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 9 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Address. NY 438 on Cattaraugus Reservation, Irving, 14081
When was it listed? January 1973
Category. building
Reservation. Cattaraugus Reservation
Architectural style. Georgian architecture
National Register reference number. 73001188 - 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

1905 to 1960

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 55 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Thomas Indian School- Infirmary, surveyed 1960

Topographic sheet covering Thomas Indian School- Infirmary, surveyed 1905

Fires near this property

87 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 87 fires within 5 miles of Thomas Indian School- Infirmary between 2000 and 2020, burning about 69 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 7 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	64
Arson/incendiarism	7
Debris and open burning	6
Natural	4
Smoking	3
Equipment and vehicle use	2
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
1 September 2008	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 August 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 August 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
31 August 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
29 August 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	IRVING
28 August 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
20 August 2017	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
19 August 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA

Every fire recorded in Erie County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Thomas Indian School- Infirmary: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Gernatt Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Lawson Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Erie County

Maps showing this location

10 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.

1905 USGS Eden quadrangle1:62500
1907 USGS Eden quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1944 USGS Eden quadrangle1:62500
1944 USGS North Collins quadrangle1:31680
1960 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS North Collins quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1967 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1973 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

2 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Gamel Hexadecagon Barn	4.5 miles	1984
	US Post Office-Angola	7.1 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73001188 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Erie County	All 283 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.