Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. 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 65 National Register listings in Lucas County · listed in 1976 · category: District · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Lucas County.
National Register reference number.76001477- 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
4 since 2002
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Waterville Commercial District between
2002 and 2015, burning about 6 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
2
Smoking
1
Debris and open burning
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 758 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Waterville Commercial District between 1860 and
1975: 668 Animalia, 83 Plantae, 5 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. D. Selby, A. Lose, A.E. Daugherty 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
4 workings within 5 miles of Waterville Commercial District: 3 producers, 1 past producer.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Dimension, Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Waterville, the town this property stands in, in 19 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 13 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 flood.
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.
Heavy rain fell across many areas of northwestern Ohio during the first half of the week from August 19th through the 22nd. Some locations across northwest Ohio picked up between 5 and 10 inches of rain during this time. The Maumee River gage at Waterville showed that the river gradually rose through the day on the 20th and 21st, and then went above flood stage of 9.0 feet just before 7:00 pm on the 21st. The river continued to rise through the entire day of the 22nd and much of the day on the 23rd. The river finally crested during the evening of the 23rd at around 11.9 feet. Over the next several days the river slowly fell as it had to handle drainage from upstream rivers, including the Blanchard River. The river remained above flood stage for just over four and a half days, and finally fell below flood stage during the afternoon hours of August 26.
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
2,201 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
the shop' s name. The second story has three 4/4 light, segmental arched Another brick commercial structure is actually two attached 3-bay two-story buildings. The fist story of both halfs has been altered and doorway and windows At the corner is a 3-bay, one-story frame structure built ca. 1900. Gruber's construction. UNEXPOSED UNALTERED XALTERED FAIR CHECK ONE gable roofs covered with metal sheathing.The roofs have generous overhangs. cornice with decorative capitals.A flush metal cornice is decorated The Emporium is a handsome two-story three-bay structure.The facade the first and second floor.The second story has two pedimented windows.At Office Machine occupies the building.Two rectangular multi-paned windows The building houses Herb's Variety Store and Sheely's Barber Shop.
brick corbelling continues across both sections just below the frieze. floor has three pedimented windows.A stamped metal band of decorative The Waterville Commercial District along Third Street consists of buildings is now Children's Apparel and it is one of the earlist in the district.This is recessed to the rear of this opening.A broad molded architrave demarcates On the east side of Third St.are six structures.The northermost building _EXCELLENT wall of this section is brick with a stepped gable end.The east side has simple 2-story brick building hasa three-bay facade.The first story Next to this shop is a 1950's warehouse building of one story. I.o.o.F.The building has been moved from the southeast corner of 3rd g Franklin. *GOOD with floral garlands.
Waterville Hardware is quite similar to the Emporium. It is also sheathed in occupy the left and center bays. The right bay houses the entrance.
Although Waterville was laid out in 1830 there are few early commercial 1890-1925 seemed to have been a period of commercial growth for Waterville. The Waterville Hardware Store serves as the Waterville Bank and as an A & P CONSERVATION ART ENGINEERING EDUCATION COMMUNICATIONS THEATER PERIOD BUILDER/ARCHITECT AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY SIGNIFICANCE EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT X1900- XARCHITECTURE the district. MUSIC _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT _PREHISTORIC _PHILOSOPHY This one block which comprised Waterville's commercial district retains the LITERATURE _TRANSPORTATION cornices and moldings.
-SCULPTURE -1600-1699 -ECONOMICS The Waterville Commercial District isa collection ofbuildings quite typical _SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN - RELIGION SCIENCE -1700-1799 canal days.The structure also served asa post office for a time.The Children's Shop was opened as Jacob Conrad's Barber Shop and Candy Counter. Gruber's Office Machine opened in 1910 as a braber shop. - MILITARY -1400-1499 In the 1950's several structures were razed including an 1880 hardware atmospher ofa small midwestern town at the beginning of this century.It store an several homes of early businessmen which were in or adjacent to of the variety often found in small midwest town centers at the turn of the _COMMUNITY PLANNING century.
Many have interesting details such as the elaborate tin siding, could easily be upgraded by a rehabilitation program. LAW -ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC - INVENTION Beam ca.1904.The Rupp family had been proprietors in Waterville since the
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76001477, 19 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.
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.
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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