Smithville Valley Grange No. 1397

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1904.

From the record

“Smithville Valley Grange No. 1397, also known as First Universalist Society Church and Smithville Community Center, is a historic grange hall at Smithville Flats in Chenango County, New York. It was built in 1842 as a church and converted for use as a grange hall in 1921.”
Wikipedia article Smithville Valley Grange No. 1397, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 47 National Register listings published here for Chenango County · listed in 1998 · 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.
Address. NY 41, Smithville Flats, 13841
When was it listed? August 1998
Category. building
Town. Smithville town
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 98001009 - 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

37 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 37 fires within 5 miles of Smithville Valley Grange No. 1397 between 1992 and 2020, burning about 35 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 3 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
Debris and open burning	12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	11
Recreation and ceremony	4
Arson/incendiarism	3
Natural	2
Smoking	2
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
5 September 2008	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
23 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 August 2000	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
10 August 2005	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
1 June 1999	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
7 May 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NORTH PUCKER ST FIRE
4 May 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.3 acres	Fire Department of New York	N/A
3 May 2015	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	TRIANGLE FIRE

Every fire recorded in Chenango County

Storms near this property

12 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smithville Flats, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 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
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	1 killed, $500	no account filed
August 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$10,000	A thunderstorm moved across the region and became severe. This thunderstorm produced severe winds and knocked over multiple trees in the vicinity of highway 41 and Collier Road.
October 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$5,000	Strong thunderstorm winds brought down trees on Round Pond Road.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$5,000	Trees were blown down on County Route 3.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$5,000	Numerous trees were blown down.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$5,000	Numerous trees and wires down. The trees were down in a broken line perpendicular to and crossing Ridge Road and Route 220. A farmhouse, truck, and car on Ridge Road received damage.
May 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$3,000	Four large trees were blown down in the area.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$3,000	Trees and poles were blown down.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$2,500	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down trees.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$1,000	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down a tree on wires.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Smithville Flats	$1,000	Strong thunderstorm wind knocked trees down.
April 2006	Hail	Smithville Flats	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chenango County

Maps showing this location

8 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.

1904 USGS Greene quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1948 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1948 USGS Smithville Flats quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1950 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1950 USGS Smithville Flats quadrangle1:25000
1958 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Binghamton quadrangle1:250000
1985 USGS Binghamton 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
Clinton-Rosekrans Law Building	5.2 miles	1979
Greene Historic District	5.2 miles	1982
Bates Round Barn	6.7 miles	1984
Calvary Epsicopal Church	7.2 miles	1998
Young Round Barn	7.2 miles	1984
Loomis Family Farm	7.6 miles	2014

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 98001009 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Chenango County	All 47 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.