Montour Falls Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1898.

From the record

“Montour Falls Historic District is a national historic district located at Montour Falls in Schuyler County, New York. The district includes 24 mid- and late-19th century structures.”
Wikipedia article Montour Falls Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 20 National Register listings published here for Schuyler County · listed in 1978 · category: District.

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

The listing

Address. Main and Genesee Sts., Montour Falls, 14865
When was it listed? August 1978
Category. district
Town. Montour town
National Register reference number. 78001911 - 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

1898 to 1992

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 94 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Montour Falls Historic District, surveyed 1992

Topographic sheet covering Montour Falls Historic District, surveyed 1898

Fires near this property

95 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 95 fires within 5 miles of Montour Falls Historic District between 2000 and 2020, burning about 74 acres in total. 12 started naturally. 15 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	38
Debris and open burning	22
Arson/incendiarism	15
Natural	12
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Recreation and ceremony	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Smoking	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
25 September 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
13 September 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 August 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 August 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
5 August 2011	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
4 August 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
3 August 2012	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
27 August 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Schuyler County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 18 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Montour Falls Historic District: 12 past producers, 3 producers, 3 plants. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Salt, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Bromine, Natural Gas. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
(Facility) Watkins Glen Well and Refinery	Bromine	Plant	Brine
G.G.Hill Well	Salt, Natural Gas	Past Producer
Barber Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Barber Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Beavers Dam Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Beavers Dam Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hoke Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Padua Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Town of Dix Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Wickham Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Schuyler County

Storms near this property

18 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Montour Falls, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 6 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 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$350,000	A line of severe thunderstorms passed through the area with scattered damage on July 15. A focused microburst descended upon the northeast side of Montour Falls, heavily damaging or in many cases uprooting a grove of large trees up to 2 feet in diameter including sycamores. They fell in a divergent pattern, indicating a downburst. Many trees or large branches dropped upon several mobile homes, entrapping 3 residents, while also crushing 2 vehicles and a riding mower. On the front side of the microburst, a Department of Public Works storage building was completely blown apart with \|only one wall left standing.
May 2004	Hail	Montour Falls	$50,000	1.75 inch hail.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$20,000	Trees were blown down on wires and houses.
August 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$12,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$10,000	A few trees and wires were knocked down. Some of these trees damaged a roof in town.
March 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$8,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down numerous trees, mostly in the woods, but there were a couple of cars that had trees fall on them.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$6,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down multiples trees and wires on road near Lee and South Streets.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$5,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down multiple trees.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$5,000	Several large trees were blown down.
July 1994	Hail	Montour Falls	$5,000	no account filed
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$1,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down a tree across a road.
April 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$1,000	A squall line with damaging winds knocked down a tree on hyde hill road.
April 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$1,000	Thunderstorm winds blew down trees and wires in the town of Montour.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Montour Falls	$500	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down a tree.
July 2025	Hail	Montour Falls	-	Estimated half dollar size hail via social media photo.
May 2012	Hail	Montour Falls	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Montour Falls	-	no account filed
August 2007	Hail	Montour Falls	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Schuyler 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.

1898 USGS Watkins Glen quadrangle1:62500
1901 USGS Watkins quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1905 USGS Watkins Glen quadrangle1:125000 - 4 printings
1950 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1950 USGS Montour Falls quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1958 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Montour Falls quadrangle1:24000
1962 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1965 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:250000
1986 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:100000
1992 USGS Elmira quadrangle1:100000

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
Brick Tavern Stand	0.3 miles	1994
Montour Falls Union Grammar School	0.6 miles	2012
Lee School	1.2 miles	1998
Schuyler County Courthouse Complex	2.5 miles	1974
Watkins Glen High School	2.5 miles	2015
US Post Office-Watkins Glen	2.7 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78001911 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Schuyler County	All 20 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.