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 22 National Register listings in Ross County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.79001933- 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
48 since 2005
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 48 fires within 5 miles of Higby House between
2005 and 2020, burning about 172 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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 burning
24
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
16
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Arson/incendiarism
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Recreation and ceremony
1
Smoking
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 781 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Higby House between 1923 and
1975: 706 Animalia, 50 Fungi, 20 Plantae, 5 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. C. Lincoln, A. Cronquist, A. Spreitzer 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
8 workings within 5 miles of Higby House: 5 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Chillicothe, the town this property stands in, in 92 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 56 thunderstorm wind, 24 hail, 6 flood, 3 lightning.
The reports record 1 death and 6 injuries. 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.
Problems with high water occurred across the county. A roof of a gas station on the west side of Chillicothe collapsed under the weight of the heavy rain.
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
1,565 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
columns supporting a three part entablature and sheltering a six panel door with supported by Doric columns that shelters another six panel door with transom. A combination frame and brick addition was made at the rear in the center of the L. It has details similar to the remainder of the house. the house and a small brick out building with stepped brick dentils at the cornice. a large frame barn in poor condition lies to the west of the house. The nominated property includes the main house and related outbuildings along with a small portion of the hillside setting of the complex. Doric ruins Condition deteriorated unexposed There is a one-story portico on the front entrance consisting of paired 7. Description been removed. and one end wall chimney.
Check one construction and the foundation is ashlar stone.There are three sidewall chimneys sidelights and transom.On the side of the house is another entrance with a portico The Dresbach House is a two-story Greek Revival common bond brick residence.It is L-shaped with five front bays and six on the side.The roof is gabled and of metal A small frame shed with standing seam metal roof is a short distance to the rear of and slightly projecting eaves. A few wooden shutters remain but the majority have The box gutters have been removed revealing stepped brick dentils under the plain The windows are 6/6 double hung sash.The sills and lintels are plain stone lug. -good 8.
Statement of significance
(in one paragraph) house popular in Ross County during the middle the nineteenth century- This local manifestation of the style was portrayed by Talbot Hamlin as characterized The Higby House was described in the 1880 county history as "a spacious brick mansion facade and side elevation help to emphasize the brick dentil work at the cornice and Situated on the side of a low hill overlooking the Scioto River, Ohio and Erie Canal, Scioto Valley Railroad, and Three Locks Road, the house was especially well sited to take advantage of the commerce moving through the valley. It was built for Sylvester The setting of the property is noteworthy with an exceptional view of the Scioto Valley the crest the elevation on which the property is located.
1857 1600-1699 1700-1799 economics 1500-1599 1400-1499 communications commerce engineering industry theater humanitarian transportation Builder/Architect conservation exploration/settlement literature invention music Period and business. science Specific dates politics/government law 1900- by brick houses with austere detailing, low roof-lines, and small classical porticos.
- other (specify) N.Higby who worked as a farmer and served as the storekeeper, station agent, and post- built in 1857,[and elegantly furnished."The austerity of the wall surfaces of the stretching out to the south of the property.The hillside setting of the property .agriculture -art - archeology-prehistoric - community planning - religion The Higby House is significant as an excellent example of the Greek Revival style of the Doric columned porticos. All combine to make the house a particularly noteworthy example of the special Greek Revival styling found in Ross County. With the exception of the cornice, the house remains much as it was shown in the 1875 county atlas. landscape architecture contributes to its visual significance and the nominated area includes author, 1875.
Hamlin, Talbot. Greek Revival Architecture in America, London:Oxford University Press, 1944.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 79001933, 13 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
1 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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