John and Lottie Ralston Cottage

Built in 1887. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.

From the record

One of 73 National Register listings published here for Linn County · listed in 1998 · category: Building · built in 1887.

Sources: 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. Ralston, John and Lottie, Cottage - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 481 Main St., Lebanon, 97355
When was it listed? March 1998
Category. building
Census division. Lebanon
When was it built? 1887
National Register reference number. 98000203 - 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

20 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of John and Lottie Ralston Cottage between 1993 and 2020, burning about 4 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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	6
Arson/incendiarism	5
Equipment and vehicle use	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Smoking	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
3 September 2003	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Sweet Home Unit - ODF	SODAVILLE
26 September 2005	Arson/incendiarism	1.2 acres	Sweet Home Unit - ODF	CASCADE DRIVE # 3
2 September 1993	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Sweet Home Unit - ODF	MIDDLE RIDGE #1
12 September 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	HWY 20 POWER
31 August 2005	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Sweet Home Unit - ODF	CASCADE DRIVE # 2
3 August 2009	Smoking	under an acre	Willamette National Forest	099
25 August 2020	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	SANTIAM HWY 966
22 August 2006	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Sweet Home Unit - ODF	DEADWOOD FIRE

Every fire recorded in Linn County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 35 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 35 workings within 5 miles of John and Lottie Ralston Cottage: 17 producers, 16 past producers, 2 occurrences. 17 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Antimony. 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
Suing	Antimony	Occurrence
Suing Farm	Antimony	Occurrence
C & S	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
C & S Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Lebanon Pit & Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Lebanon Pit & Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Truelove Site	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Trulove Site	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Linn County

Storms near this property

9 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lebanon, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 2003 and 2020: 2 funnel cloud, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 lightning. 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
September 2007	Tornado (EF0)	Lebanon	$20,000	Storm survey found tornado off of Tennessee School Drive was on the ground for 5-10 minutes, with a path a little less than a mile in length, and maximum width 350 yards. Tornado tracked northwest to southeast over open fields and then in trees. Six farm buildings damaged, mostly roof damage. Estimated 90-100 mature trees damaged, with 20-30 of them snapped off low in the trunk, and 6 to 8 uprooted. One tree fell on farmhouse sustaining minor damage. Rated EF0 on enhanced Fujita scale, with gusts 75 to 85 mph.
September 2007	Hail	Lebanon	$5,000	Half-inch hail was reported at the farmhouse the tornado hit.
September 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Lebanon	$3,000	Photos of a 4-8 inch diameter tree limbs blown down and an uprooted tree.
September 2020	Flood	Lebanon	-	A video of street flooding was posted on social media.
April 2018	Funnel Cloud	Lebanon	-	Photo of funnel cloud in Lebanon shared on Twitter by KEZI Meteorologist.
May 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Lebanon	-	Thunderstorms spread through the Willamette Valley, generating strong wind gusts that resulted in reports of downed trees and power lines and local damage. A large section of metal roof was peeled back between Lebanon and Sweet Home.
May 2006	Hail	Lebanon	-	no account filed
November 2003	Funnel Cloud	Lebanon	-	no account filed
August 2003	Lightning	Lebanon	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Linn 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.

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
Dr. J. C. Booth House	under 500 feet	1980
Lebanon Southern Pacific Railroad Depot	0.2 miles	1997
Lebanon Pioneer Cemetery	0.2 miles	1998
Louis A. Crandall House	0.3 miles	1990
Hiram Baker House	0.4 miles	1996
Elkins Flour Mill	0.4 miles	1995

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 98000203 in Record Group 79.
Linn County	All 73 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.