Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.

From the record

“Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District is a national historic district located at Yonkers, Westchester County, New York. They are residential structures and outbuildings representative of the High Victorian, Italian Villa, and Second Empire styles.”
Wikipedia article Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 250 National Register listings published here for Westchester County · listed in 1985 · category: District.

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 11 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. Roughly bounded by Cromwell Pl., Locust Hill Ave., Baldwin Pl. & N. Broadway, Yonkers, 10701
When was it listed? August 1985
Category. district
City. Yonkers city
Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 85001936 - 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

1891 to 1998

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District, surveyed 1998

Topographic sheet covering Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District, surveyed 1891

Fires near this property

1,149 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,149 fires within 5 miles of Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District between 2000 and 2020, burning about 566 acres in total. 69 started naturally. 79 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	792
Arson/incendiarism	79
Recreation and ceremony	77
Smoking	70
Natural	69
Equipment and vehicle use	23
Debris and open burning	19
Misuse of fire by a minor	7
Other causes	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Railroad operations and maintenance	3

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	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2015	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2007	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
8 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	6.3 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
8 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	NA

Every fire recorded in Westchester County

Mines and quarries near this property

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Bell Place-Locust Avenue Historic District: 4 past producers, 1 plant. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, REE, Copper. 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) Laurel Hill Refinery	Copper, Gold, Nickel, Silver, Tellurium, Selenium, Palladium, Platinum	Plant
Bergenfield Plant	REE	Past Producer
Star Sand and Gravel Inc. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hickory Lane Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer	1890
Taverniere & Johnson	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer	1897, 1908

Every working recorded in Westchester County

Storms near this property

27 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Yonkers, the town this property stands in, in 27 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 12 thunderstorm wind, 6 flash flood, 4 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
May 1997	Lightning	Yonkers	2 hurt	no account filed
July 1996	Lightning	Yonkers	1 hurt	A cluster of thunderstorms over Westchester County produced lightning which struck a woman around 8 am EST in Yonkers, causing her minor injury.
April 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	1 hurt	no account filed
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	$7,500	Multiple trees and power lines were reported down in Yonkers.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	$3,000	Wires were reported down throughout Yonkers.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	$2,000	Multiple trees and wires reported down by Skywarn Coordinator across the town of Yonkers.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Yonkers	-	Bronx River Parkway closed at Cross County Parkway due to flooding. All lanes closed.
September 2023	Flash Flood	Yonkers	-	Bronx River Parkway closed at Cross County Parkway due to flooding. All lanes closed.
December 2018	Flash Flood	Yonkers	-	The Bronx River Parkway was closed in both directions between the Sprain Brook Parkway and Exit 21 (Main Street) in White Plains due to flooding.
August 2017	Hail	Yonkers	-	Nickel sized hail was reported in Yonkers by a trained spotter.
August 2009	Funnel Cloud	Yonkers	-	Two funnel clouds were reported over Scarsdale.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	Tree down at N. Broadway at Odell Ave.
October 2006	Flash Flood	Yonkers	-	Heavy rain produced flash flooding along portions of the Bronx River Parkway in Yonkers, where the road was closed.
September 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	Trees and power lines downed in Yonkers. Penny size hail was also reported in New Rochelle from the same thunderstorm that hit Yonkers.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	Numerous trees and power lines downed.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	A spotter reported several power lines down from this storm. Local newspapers reported that numerous trees and large tree limbs were knocked down which resulted in the loss of power for 20,000 residents and damage to Bronxville's Village Hall and school.
May 1994	Hail	Yonkers	-	Isolated thunderstorms developed in a moderately unstable airmass during the afternoon hours. Dime-size hail was observed in Yonkers while numerous reports were received of hail in the range between 1/4 and 1/2 inch.
June 2011	Hail	Yonkers	-	no account filed
April 2007	Flash Flood	Yonkers	-	no account filed
July 2006	Flash Flood	Yonkers	-	no account filed
August 2001	Flood	Yonkers	-	no account filed
July 2000	Heavy Rain	Yonkers	-	no account filed
January 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	no account filed
August 1997	Hail	Yonkers	-	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	no account filed
April 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	no account filed
October 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Yonkers	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Westchester County

Maps showing this location

15 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.

1891 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1898 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500 - 16 printings
1947 USGS Yonkers quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Yonkers quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Yonkers quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1998 USGS Yonkers 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
Westminster Presbyterian Church	0.1 miles	2023
Philipse Manor Hall	0.2 miles	1966
Mott Mill	0.2 miles	2004
Proctor's Theater	0.2 miles	2008
St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church	0.2 miles	1982
John Copcutt Mansion	0.2 miles	1985

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85001936 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Westchester County	All 250 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.