Benjamin D. North House

Built in 1802 (Federal architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1907.

From the record

“North House is a historic home located at Middlefield in Otsego County, New York. It was built between 1799 and 1802 and is a two-story, five-bay, center-hall plan Federal style bank dwelling.”
Wikipedia article Benjamin D. North House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 79 National Register listings published here for Otsego County · listed in 1985 · category: Building · built in 1802, Federal architecture.

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

The listing

Listed as. North, Benjamin D., House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. NY 166, The Plank Rd., Middlefield, 13326
When was it listed? July 1985
Category. building
Town. Middlefield town
When was it built? 1802
Architectural style. Federal architecture
National Register reference number. 85001499 - 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

31 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Benjamin D. North House between 1994 and 2020, burning about 58 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 2 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	13
Natural	5
Debris and open burning	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	3
Arson/incendiarism	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Smoking	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Recreation and ceremony	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
22 September 2017	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
22 September 2016	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
13 August 2016	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
24 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
2 July 2004	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
26 May 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
21 May 2017	Natural	3.1 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
20 May 2016	Misuse of fire by a minor	1.5 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A

Every fire recorded in Otsego County

Storms near this property

10 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Middlefield, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood. 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
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$10,000	Strong thunderstorm winds brought down trees and wires.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds blew trees down which blocked Route 28.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$10,000	A thunderstorm moved across the region and became severe. This thunderstorm produced severe winds and knocked over multiple trees and wires mainly in the northeastern part of the county. This storm also knocked over trees in the towns of Cherry Valley and Milford.
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$10,000	Another isolated severe thunderstorm popped up over eastern portions of the county. Strong gusty winds downed trees and power lines in the towns of Middlefield and Cherry Valley.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$5,000	Strong thunderstorm winds brought down trees.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$5,000	no account filed
March 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$3,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down trees and wires.
June 2025	Flash Flood	Middlefield	$2,000	Flooding of roads was reported in this area.
September 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$1,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down a tree onto a roadway.
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Middlefield	$500	A squall line moved across eastern New York ahead of a strong cold front on the afternoon and evening of August 31st resulting in severe thunderstorms across much of the area. Oneida and Herkimer Counties appeared to be hardest hit by the storms as many towns in both counties were affected. Numerous trees and power lines were downed in Camden, Taberg, Lee Center, Otter Lake and Woodgate in Oneida County; and Little Falls, Herkimer, Fairfield, Newport, Middleville and Norway in Herkimer County. Utility poles were also downed in the Oneida County in Deansboro and Clinton. In Long Lake three canoeists were struck by lightning as they waited out a severe thunderstorm along the Raquette River off North Point Road.

Every storm recorded in Otsego County

Maps showing this location

9 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.

1907 USGS Cooperstown quadrangle1:62500
1909 USGS Cooperstown quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1943 USGS Westford quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1945 USGS Westford quadrangle1:31680
1948 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1950 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 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
Middlefield District No. 1 School	1.0 miles	1987
Middlefield Hamlet Historic District	1.1 miles	1985
Roseboom Historic District	4.1 miles	1998
US Post Office-Cooperstown	4.5 miles	1988
Glimmerglass Historic District	4.5 miles	1999
Cooperstown Historic District	4.6 miles	1980

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85001499 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Otsego County	All 79 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.