John Van Vechten House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1893.

From the record

“John Van Vechten House is a historic home located at Leeds in Greene County, New York. It was built in 1891 and is a masonry, Queen Anne-style dwelling with rectangular massing on a stone foundation.”
Wikipedia article John Van Vechten House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 101 National Register listings published here for Greene County · listed in 1995 · category: Building.

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 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Van Vechten, John, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. Susquehanna Tpk. (Co. Rd. 23B), Leeds, 12451
When was it listed? March 1995
Category. building
Town. Catskill town
Architectural style. Queen Anne style architecture in the United States
National Register reference number. 95000212 - 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

252 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 252 fires within 5 miles of John Van Vechten House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 331 acres in total. 16 started naturally. 26 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	102
Debris and open burning	75
Arson/incendiarism	26
Natural	16
Equipment and vehicle use	14
Smoking	9
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	4
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
6 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
30 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
29 September 2020	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
26 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
26 September 2004	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
24 September 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
21 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
20 September 2003	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Greene County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 23 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 23 workings within 5 miles of John Van Vechten House: 11 past producers, 10 producers, 2 occurrences. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Limestone, General, Iron. 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
South Potic Mountain Blue Ss Quarry	Flagstone	Past Producer
Austin's Glen Deposit	Quartz	Occurrence
Diamond Hill Deposit	Quartz	Occurrence
Plass Hill Carbonate Iron Mine	Iron, Sulfur	Producer	Calcite, Pyrite, Quartz, Siderite
Plass Hill Carbonate Iron Mine	Iron, Sulfur	Past Producer
Plass Hill	Iron	Past Producer	Residual
Catskill Limestone Quarry	Limestone, General	Producer	Limestone
Catskill Quarry	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Colarusso Quarry	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Hudson Quarry	Limestone, General	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Greene County

Storms near this property

9 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Leeds, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 4 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 1 hail. 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
December 2023	Flood	Leeds	1 killed, $30,000	Rising waters on the Catskill Creek flooded portions of Route 23B and Cauterskill Road near Leeds. A 76-year-old woman died after their vehicle was swept off Cauterskill Road due to flood waters after driving around a traffic barrier blocking the road.
December 2010	Flash Flood	Leeds	$180,000	A home was severely damaged by water due to flash flooding on County Route 23B in Leeds/Catskill.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Leeds	$2,000	no account filed
December 2020	Flood	Leeds	-	Cauterskill Road and County Route 23B in Leeds were closed due to water over the road.
July 2013	Flash Flood	Leeds	-	The New York State Thruway southbound lanes at mile marker 111 were flooded due to heavy rainfall from thunderstorms.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Leeds	-	Trees were reported down at the Rip Van Winkle Motor Lodge in Leeds, due to strong thunderstorm winds. The winds were believed to occur from a microburst associated with the thunderstorm, with estimated peak winds of 85 mph.
September 2004	Flash Flood	Leeds	-	Officials closed a section of County Route 23B in Leeds, and many other creekside roads were closed as well. In addition, scattered power outages were reported due to the flooding.
August 2003	Flash Flood	Leeds	-	no account filed
August 1997	Hail	Leeds	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Greene County

Maps showing this location

10 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.

1893 USGS Coxsackie quadrangle1:62500
1894 USGS Coxsackie quadrangle1:62500 - 8 printings
1929 USGS Coxsackie quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1948 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1953 USGS Leeds quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1956 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Albany quadrangle1:250000
1986 USGS Pittsfield 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
Leeds Dutch Reformed Church	0.1 miles	1996
Newkirk Homestead	0.8 miles	1979
Salisbury Manor	0.9 miles	1979
Captain Joseph Allen House	1.9 miles	2022
District School No. 11	2.1 miles	1995
Rushmore Farm	2.3 miles	2010

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 95000212 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Greene County	All 101 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.