Photograph of Ralph Johnson Bunche House — Photograph by Dmadeo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Ralph Bunche House

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1927. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. 17 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1889.

From the record

“Ralph Johnson Bunche House, the last home of American diplomat Ralph Bunche (1903-1971), is a National Historic Landmark in New York City. It is a single-family home built in 1927 in the neo-Tudor style, and is located at 115-24 Grosvenor Road, Kew Gardens, Queens.”
Wikipedia article Ralph Johnson Bunche House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 108 National Register listings published here for Queens County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1927 · 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. Bunche, Ralph, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 115--125 Grosvenor Rd., New York, 11418
When was it listed? May 1976
Category. building
Borough. Queens
When was it built? 1927
National Register reference number. 76001266 - 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 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Ralph Bunche House, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Ralph Bunche House, surveyed 1889

Fires near this property

3,003 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3,003 fires within 5 miles of Ralph Bunche House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,396 acres in total. 169 started naturally. 148 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	2217
Natural	169
Smoking	152
Arson/incendiarism	148
Misuse of fire by a minor	101
Equipment and vehicle use	83
Debris and open burning	76
Recreation and ceremony	41
Power generation/transmission/distribution	12
Fireworks	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	2

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 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10 acres	Gateway National Recreation Area	FOUNTAIN1

Every fire recorded in Queens County

Maps showing this location

17 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.

1889 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1891 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1898 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Brooklyn quadrangle1:62500 - 11 printings
1947 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1979 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1994 USGS Jamaica quadrangle1:24000

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
Kent Manor	0.2 miles	2022
Richmond Hill Historic District	0.3 miles	2019
Maple Grove Cemetery	0.7 miles	2004
Public School 66	0.8 miles	2003
Saint Luke's Episcopal Church	0.8 miles	2010
Church-in-the-Gardens, The	0.9 miles	2009

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 76001266 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Queens County	All 108 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.