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Photograph of Crawfis Institute
Photograph by Jud McCranie, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Crawfis Institute

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. 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 Ohio's interesting and prosperous villages is Sugar Grove, located in the southeastern part of the county. This village is so situated that both nature and human enterprise contribute their utmost to its beauty, scientific interest and prosperity.”

History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens (1912). Machine-read text.

one of 29 National Register listings in Fairfield County · listed in 1979 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Fairfield County.

Sources: the county history on the Internet Archive · 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. Crawfis and Old Sugar Grove Rds, Sugar Grove, 43130
  • When was it listed? 1979-11-29
  • Category. building
  • Township. Berne township
  • National Register reference number. 79001833 - 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.

The ground it stands on

2,331 words

The chapter on Berne Township in A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, published 1877 names Sugar Grove. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

It is said that Berne Township was named in honor of the Canton of Berne, in Switzerland, by Samuel Carpenter, at the time of its organization, a citizen. There are two post-offices in the township - Sugar Grove, eight miles below Lancaster,

Passage source: A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, published 1877.

Judge Joseph Stukey built a grist-mill on Rush Creek, just at the foot of what is now Sugar Grove, at a very early period. Mr. Stukey will be remembered as having been one of the Associate Common Pleas Judges for Fairfield County. He served a number of years, embracing the year 1840. He died several years ago.

Passage source: A Complete History of Fairfield County, Ohio, published 1877.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Berne Township - 2,331 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

13 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Crawfis Institute between 2003 and 2020, burning about 81 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
Debris and open burning7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
5 April 2015Power generation/transmission/distribution7.0 acresOhio Department of Natural Resources742
20 April 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresOhio Department of Natural Resources7937
9 March 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 March 2020Debris and open burning2.0 acresOhio Department of Natural Resources15458
25 March 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined35 acresOhio Department of Natural ResourcesBERNE TWP.
19 March 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources524
28 February 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 February 2012Debris and open burning25 acresOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Fairfield County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 2,520 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 2,520 specimens collected within 10 miles of Crawfis Institute between 1839 and 1975: 1,836 Animalia, 412 Fungi, 258 Plantae, 7 Protozoa, 5 Unrecorded, 2 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. Schrader, Angerman, C. (Carl) & Triplehorn, C. A. (Charles A.), Asa Gray; W. S. Sullivant 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.

All 2,520 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Crawfis Institute: 4 past producers, 3 producers. 3 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Alley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Blazer Plant A-1 & PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Brewer Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Febus Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Morris Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
Morris Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Stump Hollow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Fairfield County

Storms near this property

19 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sugar Grove, the town this property stands in, in 19 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 flash 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2025Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$5,000Several trees were downed in the Sugar Grove area.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$5,000Six trees were downed in Berne Township.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$4,000Multiple large trees were uprooted out of saturated soils. The trees fell onto communication and power lines.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$3,000A couple of trees and several large limbs were reported knocked down.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$3,000Trees were downed.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$2,000Several trees were downed.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$2,000Trees were downed due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$2,000Trees were reported down due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$2,000Large limbs were downed.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$1,000A couple of large limbs were knocked down.
November 2011Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$1,000Two trees were reported down due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
June 2007HailSugar Grove$1,000no account filed
October 2021Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove$250Several large branches were downed.
June 2025Flash FloodSugar Grove-Water was flowing over Chicken Coop Hill Road.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove-A large tree limb was downed.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindSugar Grove-Numerous trees were downed along Horns Mill Road due to damaging thunderstorm winds. The road was closed as a result.
May 2018HailSugar Grove-no account filed
July 2017HailSugar Grove-no account filed
July 2000HailSugar Grove-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Fairfield 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

1,398 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

located on the roof. The building is beautifully situated on a hilltop surrounded by trees and are located in the center of the east and west elevations.Both have double The building projections measure 3by 2bays.The segmental arched entrances Areas of Significance-Check and justify below - prehistoric - archeology-historic _ conservation - science _ agriculture _ economics - sculpture x architecture X education _ social/ .engineering .music _exploration/settlement - philosophy _ theater 22 politics/government .transportation .. other (specify) Crawfis Institute is an excellent, well preserved example of a late 19th simple, straightforward and dignified.

The separation of the bays, segmental arched openings, the cupola, the fine stonework in the foundation and the The building is named after John Crawfis, donor of the land and school, who was 1600-1699 1500-1599 1400-1499 1700-1799 commerce 1800-1899 industry Builder/Architect invention humanitarian Period military Specific dates 1900- literature Crawfis Institute holds special

Statement of significance

(in one paragraph) of the hill. -art - archeology-prehistoric - community planning _ landscape architecture _ religion 1889 interior finishes-are worthy of mention. The building survives today virtually unaltered since 1889.The design is The idyllic secluded hilltop closed as a school.The Grange continues to maintain and use the building 9.

The whole case file for this property - 1,398 words, 13 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 79001833, 13 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 79001833 in Record Group 79.
Fairfield CountyAll 29 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.
  • 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.