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
“Brubaker Covered Bridge runs across Sandy Run, to the west-northwest of Gratis Township, Preble County, Ohio. It is 85 feet (26 m) in length, and was built in 1887 by Everett S.”
Wikipedia article Brubaker Covered Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 16 National Register listings in Preble County · listed in 1975 · category: Structure.
National Register reference number.75001527- 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.
Gratis is the southeast township of the county, and may be described as rolling land generally. Along the southern line, measuring from the west line, is a strip of level land about three miles long by one and a half miles wide. When the county was first settled this land was wet and much of it swampy, but, by drainage, it has become the most fertile land of the county.
Gratis township is essentially a farming community, the main crops being those generally raised in this latitude. The houses and farms look comfortable and well kept, the land is productive and the farmers prosperous. The origin of the name of the township is given in the chapter on organization, at least that is the story told by Judge Jacob Chambers and George D. Hendrix, who got it from those who were prominent in the affairs of the county at the time it occurred.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 761 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Brubaker Covered Bridge between 1877 and
1975: 574 Animalia, 152 Fungi, 35 Plantae. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A.R. Gaufin, H.H. Ross, Arden R. Gaufin and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
3 workings within 5 miles of Brubaker Covered Bridge: 1 past producer, 1 plant, 1 producer.
2 still produce. What was taken out: 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Gratis, the town this property stands in, in 10 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 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.
A few trees were downed in the Gratis area near the intersection of U.S. Route 127 and Antioch Road as well as in the 9000 block of Pleasant Valley Road.
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
1,558 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.
Description of the property
MAY roadway approaches,required the removal of a portion of the metal. The stone abutments have been pointed with a cement- vertical siding in 1936. The Preble County Highway Depart- Pre-Columbian | - 20th Century SPECIFIC DATE(S) (If Applicable and Known) Ö Urban Pianning "losophy: ] Social/Human- Military ( - Theater X Transportation MAY 2 1887 Conservation Commerce Communications Architecture Science REGISTER Aboriginal Music NATIONAL Agriculture Engineering Literature in his bridge yard on North Maple Street in Eaton during Political Religion/Phi County. This covered bridge is in need of recognition and
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 75001527, 10 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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.
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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
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.
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