Balch Hotel

Built in 1907 (Italianate architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

From the record

“The Balch Hotel is a historic commercial lodging building in Dufur, Oregon, United States. It was built in 1907 by Charles Balch, a local land owner and businessman.”
Wikipedia article Balch Hotel, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 31 National Register listings published here for Wasco County · listed in 1987 · category: Building · built in 1907, Italianate architecture.

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. 40 S. Main, Dufur, 97021
When was it listed? September 1987
Category. building
Census division. Dufur
When was it built? 1907
Architectural style. Italianate architecture
National Register reference number. 87001469 - 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

17 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Balch Hotel between 1994 and 2018, burning about 34,195 acres in total. 5 started naturally. None was 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
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Natural	5
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Debris and open burning	2
Recreation and ceremony	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
1 September 2012	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Mt. Hood National Forest	508
9 August 2013	Natural	343 acres	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	WALSTON
6 August 1998	Equipment and vehicle use	225 acres	The Dalles Unit	FIFTEENMILE
5 August 1999	Natural	4.0 acres	The Dalles Unit	EIGHTMILE
4 August 1999	Natural	under an acre	The Dalles Unit	PLEASANT RIDGE #2
25 August 2014	Natural	6.8 acres	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	BURTNER ROAD
9 July 2002	Equipment and vehicle use	90 acres	The Dalles Unit	8 MILE
6 July 1998	Debris and open burning	under an acre	The Dalles Unit	DUFUR VALLEY RD.

Every fire recorded in Wasco County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Balch Hotel: 3 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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
Barnett	Stone	Past Producer
Barnett Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
May	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
May Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Underhill	Stone	Past Producer
Underhill Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer

Every working recorded in Wasco County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 87001469 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Wasco County	All 31 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.