Shute Octagon House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1895.

From the record

“The Shute Octagon House is a historic octagon house located on McGuire School Road in Duanesburg, Schenectady County, New York. It was built about 1855 by noted master carpenter Alexander Delos "Boss" Jones.”
Wikipedia article Shute Octagon House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 87 National Register listings published here for Schenectady County · listed in 1984 · category: Building.

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

The listing

Address. McGuire School Rd., Duanesburg, 12053
When was it listed? October 1984
Category. building
Also known as. Duanesburg MRA
Town. Duanesburg town
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 84003276 - 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

94 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 94 fires within 5 miles of Shute Octagon House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 102 acres in total. 9 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	52
Arson/incendiarism	15
Natural	9
Debris and open burning	7
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Smoking	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
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
23 September 2013	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
3 August 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
26 August 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
23 August 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
16 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
15 August 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named
12 August 2002	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
1 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA

Every fire recorded in Schenectady County

Storms near this property

14 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Duanesburg, the town this property stands in, in 14 storm reports between 1995 and 2014: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 lightning. The reports record 4 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
June 1998	Lightning	Duanesburg	3 hurt	no account filed
July 2001	Lightning	Duanesburg	1 hurt, $2,000	Lightning from a thunderstorm struck a male farmer in Duanesburg. He was thrown to the ground, but never lost conciousness and only suffered minor injuries. A tree was struck nearby, caught fire and was destroyed.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	$25,000	no account filed
September 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	$17,000	no account filed
October 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	$15,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	$7,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	$500	no account filed
May 2014	Hail	Duanesburg	-	Large apple size hail was reported during a thunderstorm in Duanesburg.
July 2009	Hail	Duanesburg	-	Nickel size hail was reported in Duanesburg during a thunderstorm.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	-	Trees and power lines were reported down in Duanesburg due to strong thunderstorm winds.
December 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	-	Trees were reported down due to thunderstorm winds in Duanesburg.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	-	Trees blown down.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Duanesburg	-	Tree down in Princetown.
June 2002	Hail	Duanesburg	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Schenectady County

Maps showing this location

10 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.

1895 USGS Amsterdam quadrangle1:62500 - 7 printings
1931 USGS Amsterdam quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1947 USGS Amsterdam quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1948 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1949 USGS Amsterdam quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1950 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1954 USGS Duanesburg quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1958 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1985 USGS Amsterdam 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
Jones, A.D. (Boss), House	0.2 miles	1984
Howard Homestead	0.5 miles	1984
Halladay Farmhouse	0.6 miles	1984
Alexander Liddle Farmhouse	0.7 miles	1984
Avery Farmhouse	0.8 miles	1984
Ladd Farmhouse	1.0 miles	1984

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 84003276 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Schenectady County	All 87 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.
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.