Maple Lawn

Built in 1859 (Gothic Revival). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1903.

From the record

“Maple Lawn, also known as the Walter Vail House, is a residence in Balmville, New York, United States built in the Gothic Revival architectural style's Picturesque mode. It was designed by Frederick Clarke Withers, following principles of his late mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing, and commissioned by a wealthy local family in 1859.”
Wikipedia article Maple Lawn, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 187 National Register listings published here for Orange County · listed in 1984 · category: Building · built in 1859, Gothic Revival, by Frederick Clarke Withers.

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 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 24 Downing St., Balmville, 12550
When was it listed? June 1984
Category. building
Town. Newburgh town
When was it built? 1859
Architectural style. Gothic Revival
Architect. Frederick Clarke Withers
National Register reference number. 84002879 - 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

684 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 684 fires within 5 miles of Maple Lawn between 1992 and 2020, burning about 778 acres in total. 38 started naturally. 69 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	420
Arson/incendiarism	69
Smoking	49
Natural	38
Debris and open burning	34
Recreation and ceremony	31
Equipment and vehicle use	28
Power generation/transmission/distribution	7
Misuse of fire by a minor	4
Other causes	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
7 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
7 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2016	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
6 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 2004	Arson/incendiarism	2.5 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named
6 September 1995	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
5 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A

Every fire recorded in Orange County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 25 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 25 workings within 5 miles of Maple Lawn: 21 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Iron, Stone. 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
Cedar Cliff Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Graphite Mine No. Hk-019	Graphite	Past Producer	Graphite
Graphite Mine No. Hk-019	Graphite	Past Producer
Limestone Rock Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Granitic Gneiss Rock Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Granitic Gneiss Rock Quarry No. Hk-021	Stone	Past Producer	Gneiss, Granite
Limestone Rock Quarry No. Hj-021	Stone	Past Producer
Chateaugay Mine	Iron	Past Producer	1871
Limonite Mine No. Hj-024	Iron	Past Producer	Limonite
Limonite Mine No. Hj-024.	Iron	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Orange County

Storms near this property

4 since 2016

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balmville, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2016 and 2021: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death. 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
May 2018	Tornado (EF0)	Balmville	1 killed, $50,000	Based on a National Weather Service damage survey done in\|conjunction with the Newburgh Fire Department, it has been \|determined that an EF0 tornado went through the Balmville \|neighborhood of Newburgh. The tornado originated near Albany Post \|Road, to the south of the intersection with Bennet Road. A tree fell on a moving car on Albany Post Rd, killing the woman inside. The \|tornado lifted near the Hudson River behind the house at 56 Susan \|Drive. The tornado sheared off trees around half way to the \|ground, peeled the bark off of one tree, and caused localized \|convergence of uprooted trees. It also caused leaves to be \|plastered on three sides of houses in the Susan Drive area. Based \|on this, the tornado was classified as an EF0 tornado with an \|estimated maximum wind speed of around 75 mph.
February 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Balmville	$15,000	Trees were reported down on cars at the intersection of Route 9W and Chestnut Lane.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Balmville	$2,000	Two trees down on Fostertown Road near Route 9W. Three intersections with no power along Route 9W.
July 2020	Flash Flood	Balmville	-	Route 9W was flooded with three feet of water near I-84 in Newburgh, stranding motorists.

Every storm recorded in Orange County

Maps showing this location

11 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.

1903 USGS Newburg quadrangle1:62500 - 5 printings
1903 USGS Newburgh quadrangle1:62500 - 5 printings
1946 USGS Newburgh quadrangle1:62500
1947 USGS Newburgh North quadrangle1:24000
1950 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Newburgh quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1959 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1962 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1965 USGS Scranton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1986 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

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
Powelton Club	0.3 miles	1999
Bloomer-Dailey House and Balmville Tree	0.6 miles	2000
Balmville Cemetery	0.9 miles	2010
Echo Lawn Estate	0.9 miles	2009
David Crawford House	1.0 miles	1972
Old Town Cemetery and Palatine Church Site	1.1 miles	2000

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 84002879 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Orange County	All 187 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.