Built in 1897 in the Romanesque Revival architecture. 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.
one of 21 National Register listings in Wood County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · built in 1897, Romanesque Revival architecture · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Wood County.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Thurston Building between 2002 and 2002, burning about 0 acres in total. None 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 June 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 509 specimens collected within 10 miles of Thurston Building between 1860 and 1974: 461 Animalia, 43 Plantae, 3 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. D. Selby, Bureau of Fisheries, Campbell, L. W. (Louis W.) 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.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Lampsilis alata (Say, 1817) | 1908 | not recorded | Grand Rapids |
 | Leptodea fragilis (Rafinesque, 1820) | 1908 | not recorded | Maumee River, Grand Rapids |
 | Ligumia recta (Lamarck, 1819) | 1908 | Bureau of Fisheries | Grand Rapids |
 | Notropis hudsonius (Clinton, 1824) | 1860 | unknown | Grand Rapids, Maumee R. |
 | Aplodinotus grunniens Rafinesque, 1819 | 1893 | P. Kirsch | Maumee River, Waterville, Ohio |
 | Cambarus rusticus Girard, 1852 | 1893 | United States Fish Commission | Beaver Creek, Grand Rapids |
 | Catostomus commersonii (Lacepède, 1803) | 1893 | P. Kirsch | Maumee River, Waterville, Ohio |
 | Chrysemys picta (Schneider, 1783) | 1893 | not recorded | Grand Rapids, Maumee River |
 | Ericymba buccata Cope, 1865 | 1893 | P. Kirsch | Maumee River, Grand Rapids, Ohio |
 | Etheostoma blennioides Rafinesque, 1819 | 1893 | not recorded | Maumee River, Waterville, Ohio |
 | Etheostoma flabellare Rafinesque, 1819 | 1893 | PH Kirsch | Beaver Creek, from mouth (at Maumee) up for 3 mi; near Grand Rapids; Maumee River dr |
 | Etheostoma nigrum Rafinesque, 1820 | 1893 | not recorded | Maumee River, Waterville, Ohio |
All 509 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Grand Rapids, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 2007 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Grand Rapids | $300,000 | Thunderstorm downburst winds estimated to be at least 60 mph caused damage throughout northern Wood County. Damage was reported from the Grand Rapids area northeast across Perrysburg Township to near Millbury in the northeast corner of the county. Several barns and outbuildings were damaged in the Dowling area and a mobile home in Millbury was heavily damaged. Several homes south of Perrysburg sustained damage from fallen trees. At least one home in Rossford also sustained damage. Hundreds of trees and limbs along with a few utility poles were downed across northern Wood County. Scattered power outages were reported. |
| June 2015 | Flood | Grand Rapids | $250,000 | The Maumee River flooded it's banks in the city of Grand Rapids in late June due to several days of heavy rain across the entire Maumee Basin. The river crested at 19.2 feet in moderate flood stage around 8 pm on the 29th. Several businesses in downtown Grand Rapids were inundated with a few inches of water. West, Beach, and Front Streets were the most impacted. Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce said of this flooding that this was the most significant non-winter flood event Grand Rapids has ever experienced. |
| February 2011 | Flood | Grand Rapids | $10,000 | Heavy rain and rapid snow melt led to a flooding over Grand Rapids in Wood County. Around two inches of rainfall fell on six inches of heavy snow was on the ground. This snow rapidly melted as temperatures warmed into the 50s on the 28th. Up to an additional inch of water equivalent rainfall was released from the melted snow. Small streams and creeks overran their banks, flooding low lying portions of Grand Rapids. Backup in the town storm water and sewer systems were reported to have caused some of the flooding issued as well. The only property damage reported was minor basement flooding. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Grand Rapids | $10,000 | Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees. |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Grand Rapids | $2,000 | The park service reported large limbs brought down by thunderstorms winds near Grand Rapids. |
| November 2011 | Flood | Grand Rapids | $2,000 | Maumee River at Grand Rapids rose above moderate flood stage cresting just over 18.0 feet. At this level Mary Jane Thurston Park and a residance near the river flooded. Some backwater to storm water drainage resulted in water issues in town, but no property was impacted as a result. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Grand Rapids | $1,000 | One tree and large limb was reported down. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Grand Rapids | - | Numerous trees downed in Grand Rapids. A portion of one tree fell onto house, but presence and extent of structural damage were not reported. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Grand Rapids | - | no account filed |
2 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues, 0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| The Tri-County News | 1915 to 1949 |
| Tri-County Bulletin | 1897 to 1914 |
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.
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.
an oriel window on the northeast corner of the building. This once the parapet in which THURSTON is spelled out in raised letters. recessed doorways.One of these entrances leads to the store, the with contrasting brick.There isa single step in the center of Fair - Pre-Columbian | - 20th Century - Urban Planning - Other (Specify) X] Science - Sculpture Commerce : - Transportation STATEMENT OF
advertised to cure constipation, headache, biliousness, torpid The building was headquarters for not only his pharmacy, but for MAR 1 8 1975 Conservation Military REGISTER Communications NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE Aboriginal patent medicine. RECEIVED Prehistoric Architecture Theater losophy Agriculture Literature Industry Music itarian Azor's daughter. Invention Political Landscape Education remedies were highly known and used with confidence. The building is important as one of few nineteenth century his real estate firm and was the birthplace of the Grand Rapids neighboring buildings and was later owned by Helen Thurston, The pharmacy survived the fire of 1898 which destroyed eighteen Engineering Social/Human- soda fountain still along the west wall.
Thurston is notable since it provides an insight into early The building has always housed a pharmacy and the one there buildings remaining in Grand Rapids and as a late nineteenth Religion/Phi. PERIOD One or More as Appropriate) SPECIFIC DATE(S) (Il Applicable and Known) AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Check One or More as Appropriate) century commercial building. Its association with Azor 1897 Art Banking Company of which Mr.Thurston was the first cashier. was a highly respected writer on pharmacology and a most highly The Thurston building was built by Azor Thurston in 1897.Thurston Thurston's Pills and Thurston's Sarsaprilla. The pills were noted citizen of the village of Grand Rapids.He manufactured Beers & Co., 1897.
The whole case file for this property - 1,366 words, 11 pages, reproduced complete.
Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 75001555, 11 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.
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.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Town Hall | under 500 feet | 1975 |
 | Housley, R. A., House | 0.1 miles | 1996 |
 | Kerr, Benjamin F., House | 0.1 miles | 1979 |
 | Heeter-Russo House | 0.4 miles | 1975 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 75001555 in Record Group 79. |
| Wood County | All 21 listed properties in this county. |
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