First Congregational Church of Otto

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1923.

From the record

“First Congregational Church of Otto, now known as the Medora Ball Historical Museum, is a historic Congregational church building located at Otto in Cattaraugus County, New York. It was built in 1861 and is in a vernacular Italianate style.”
Wikipedia article First Congregational Church of Otto, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 39 National Register listings published here for Cattaraugus County · listed in 1999 · 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. 9019 Main St., Otto, 14719
When was it listed? February 1999
Category. building
Town. Otto town
National Register reference number. 99000194 - 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

42 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 42 fires within 5 miles of First Congregational Church of Otto between 1995 and 2020, burning about 58 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 6 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	14
Debris and open burning	10
Arson/incendiarism	6
Smoking	5
Natural	4
Equipment and vehicle use	2
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
14 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
29 July 2005	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
14 July 2007	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	New York Forest Rangers	SOUTH BRANCH
4 June 2007	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
17 June 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 May 1995	Smoking	25 acres	New York Forest Rangers	not named
5 May 2015	Arson/incendiarism	2.5 acres	Fire Department of New York	NA
2 May 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Cattaraugus County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of First Congregational Church of Otto: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Salt, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
East Otto Town Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
C.H.Richey No.1 Well	Salt	Past Producer
J.P.Strickland No.3 Well	Salt	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Cattaraugus County

Storms near this property

21 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Otto, the town this property stands in, in 21 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 18 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 hail. 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 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$25,000	no account filed
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$20,000	Law enforcement reported power lines down.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$20,000	no account filed
November 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$15,000	no account filed
October 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$15,000	no account filed
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$15,000	no account filed
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$10,000	Trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
November 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$10,000	County Emergency Management reported several trees and power lines downed.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$10,000	Trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$10,000	no account filed
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$10,000	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$10,000	no account filed
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$8,000	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$8,000	no account filed
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$5,000	Six trees were reported down with damage to a chicken coop. All animals, including nine horses and two donkeys were safe.
May 1998	Hail	East Otto	$5,000	no account filed
January 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Otto	$2,000	Trees and powerlines downed in the town of Otto.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$1,000	A tree and powerlines were downed.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	East Otto	$1,000	Trees were reported down onto Gowanda Zoar Road.
July 2025	Flash Flood	East Otto	-	Utley Road in East Otto closed due to water flowing across the road.
July 2025	Flash Flood	East Otto	-	Hammond Hill Road in East Otto closed due to water flowing across the road.

Every storm recorded in Cattaraugus County

Maps showing this location

9 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.

1923 USGS Cattaraugus quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1938 USGS Cattaraugus quadrangle1:62500
1941 USGS Cattaraugus quadrangle1:62500
1960 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1963 USGS Cattaraugus quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1967 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1973 USGS Buffalo quadrangle1:250000
1986 USGS Olean quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

4 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
Cattaraugus Village Commercial Historic District	2.7 miles	2014
East Otto Union School	4.5 miles	2004
Cattaraugus County Memorial and Historical Building	7.3 miles	2025
US Post Office-Little Valley	7.5 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 99000194 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cattaraugus County	All 39 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.