Sunbury Tavern

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.

From the record

one of 49 National Register listings in Delaware County · listed in 1975 · category: Building.

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.
Address. NW corner OH 37 and Galena Rd., Sunbury, 44867
When was it listed? 1975-02-24
Category. building
National Register reference number. 75001376 - 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.

Storms near this property

30 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sunbury, the town this property stands in, in 30 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 20 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 tornado. 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	Tornado (F0)	Sunbury	$50,000	A tornado made a brief touchdown damaging numerous trees, destroying a barn, damaged 2 homes, and carried away a swingset.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$10,000	Several trees and power lines were downed.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$10,000	Several trees were downed in the Sunbury area as well as in other parts of eastern Delaware County.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$10,000	Numerous trees and power lines were downed in the Sunbury area.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$8,000	Numerous power lines were reported down and a tree fell through the roof of a house due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$5,000	Numerous trees were downed across eastern portions of Delaware County.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	A few trees were downed near the intersection of Morning Street and Harrison Street.
September 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	Multiple trees were downed on Orchard Lane.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	Trees were reported down due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	Trees were knocked down.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	Trees and powerlines were downed.
June 2001	Flash Flood	Sunbury	$3,000	Thunderstorms produced heavy rain which caused high water on roads.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	Several trees knocked down by strong winds.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	Trees downed.
April 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$3,000	no account filed
September 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$2,000	Two large trees were uprooted at a residence on North Columbus Street.
July 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$2,000	A couple of trees were downed in Genoa and Porter Townships.
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$2,000	Extensive tree damage occurred north of Sunbury due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	$1,000	A tree was knocked down over the road.
August 2017	Hail	Sunbury	$1,000	A media member reported minor damage to his car which was parked outside.
June 2014	Flash Flood	Sunbury	$1,000	Several roads were closed across the eastern part of Delaware County due to high water caused by heavy rainfall.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	-	The Emergency Manager estimated the wind gust.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	-	An observer reported a wind gust to 63 mph.
March 2024	Hail	Sunbury	-	no account filed
June 2013	Hail	Sunbury	-	no account filed
March 2012	Hail	Sunbury	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Sunbury	-	no account filed
April 1998	Hail	Sunbury	-	no account filed
April 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Sunbury	-	no account filed
August 1996	Hail	Sunbury	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Delaware 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.

From the nomination file

3,215 words on record

When this property was proposed for the National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is, and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain. It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s typewriter's.

Statement of significance

the days of stagecoach travel, had some distinguished guests the second floor porch and Presidents Hayes and Harrison The building was one of the earliest in Delaware county, and is featured in I. T. Early Homes of Ohio as an example of an Ohio tavern which has a decidely "southern" atmosphere. 1812 in Licking County, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Sunbury Tavern is now known as the Hopkins House, a boarding *Minnie Hite Moody, a local writer-historian, says that the architect, Benjamin of Boston, was reportedly the designer for both the Buxton Inn and the Sunbury Inn.
DEC 11 1974 Commerce Conservation losophy Architecture Communications REGISTER Theater Aboriginal NATIONAL Music Literature itarian RECEIVED Agriculture Sculpture Invention Engineering Industry Education during the nineteenth century-Henry Clay made a speech from Urban Planning were overnight visitors. Sunbury is located in Berkshire township which was organized Prehistoric The Sunbury Tavern was built in 1804 by Joe Adams on property building and quite rare in Ohio. AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate) In appearance it is very much like the Buxton Inn, built in Military Art

The whole case file for this property - 3,215 words, 17 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 75001376, 17 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 75001376 in Record Group 79.
Delaware County	All 49 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.
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.