Photograph by Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
St. Augustine's Catholic Church
Built in 1856 in the Gothic Revival. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1982. 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
“Augustine's Catholic Church is a historic church in Napoleon, Ohio, United States. Located on the edge of the city's downtown, two blocks away from the Henry County Courthouse, the church is a prominent landmark in Napoleon.”
Wikipedia article St. Augustine's Catholic Church (Napoleon, Ohio), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 4 National Register listings in Henry County · listed in 1982 · category: Building · built in 1856, Gothic Revival.
National Register reference number.82003593- 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
1,008 words
The chapter on Napoleon Township in Fall of Napoleon, published 1907 names Napoleon. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
World. - "The story of Napoleon's childhood . . . could not have had an abler or more sympathetic narrator than the author of this very fascinating work ... to be welcomed as an extremely valuable contribution to the study of a superlatively great historic figure."
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 11 fires within 5 miles of St. Augustine's Catholic Church between
2020 and 2020, burning about 13 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 burning
6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
3
Smoking
2
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 131 specimens
collected within 10 miles of St. Augustine's Catholic Church between 1898 and
1974: 113 Animalia, 9 Plantae, 7 Fungi, 2 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by Adler, K. K., C.R. Neiswander, Claud Revere Neiswander 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 St. Augustine's Catholic Church: 1 past producer, 1 plant, 1 producer.
2 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, 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
Napoleon, the town this property stands in, in 49 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 37 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 2 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.
SOUTHERN HALF OF THE COUNTY SUSTAINED THE WORST FLOODING. MANY RURAL COUNTY ROADS WERE WASHED OUT TO SOME DEGREE WITH EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO LOWLAND AGRICULTURAL FARM FIELDS.
Emergency management officials reported uprooted trees and power lines down in and around Napoleon. A work trailer flipped over and was blown onto Scott Street. A tree fell onto a house on Oakwood Avenue.
A trained spotter reported roof fascia ripped off, as well as shingles off a store front roof. Some minor structural damage was noted to the roof as well.
Emergency management officials reported widespread, significant wind damage across the county. Three utility trailers were pushed across the parking lot at the Emergency Operations Center.
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.
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.
Named in the fire insurance atlases
Sanborn surveyors printed an index of the
town's establishments at the front of each atlas. This property is named in
one, read straight off the scanned sheet.
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
St. Augustine's Catholic Church numerous gothic spires and/or quatrefoils found on each.
Only the original communion Brick The facade features three entrances, all projecting and highlighted by extensive brick railing has been removed.The rear balcony, which houses the original organ (now electrified), three louvered gothic openings.Corner buttress-like piers, two at each corner of the sweeps across the breadth of the church and affords a grand vista of the interior.The Areas of Significance - Check and justify below - archeology-prehistoric - archeology-historic - science _sculpture .other (specify) outstanding example of ecclesiastical High Victorian Gothic architecture, both on the in every area of the church from the corbelled wall surfaces and molded windows to the one of the few known remaining works of 19th century Toledo architect Alexander Young.
(Other than periodic interior repainting and recarpeting, the only alterations have been has resisted efforts to "modernize" the church's historic gothic character.) priests began serving local catholics. St. Augustine's was established in 1858 as the first who had worked on the construction of the Miami and Erie Canal, and who subsequently settled Napoleon, following alongside the Maumee River, and connected Toledo with Cincinnati and who came to St. Augustine's in 1870 and would serve the church for 55 years, the present much ceremony and in the presence of diocesan Bishop Gilmour of Cleveland. The church was completed in 1883, at a total cost of $21,893.
Most of the main construction work was done by parish member and long-time promoter of and materials to erect the lofty steeple, reputedly awaiting the completion of the tower atop the church's steeple. The gilt cross was positioned in place, about 200 feet above and fresco-work, stained glass, 12 rank tracker organ, and the heavily carved pews, few years later. Fr.
(in one paragraph) St. Augustine's Catholic Church is significant as an outstanding example of ecclesiastical High Victorian Gothic architecture, both on the one of the few known remaining works of 19th century Toledo architect Alexander Young. Henry County, founded in 1834 according to its present confines, has always been an agrarian By the 1860's the congregation had become a permanent parish and soon outgrew the original frame mission chapel. who came to St. Augustine's in 1870 and would serve the church for 55 years, the present atop the church's steeple. The gilt cross was positioned in place, about 200 feet above street level, 100 years ago in February, 1882.
The interior finishing, including plaster Builder Architect Otto Honeck (Napoleon)/Alex Young (Toledo) atop the new Henry County Courthouse (National Register) before hoisting a higher cross Votteler of Cleveland. Matching side altars and "Stations of the Cross" were added a 1500-1599 1600-1699 1881-1883 art prehistoric -communityplanning Specific dates Under the direction of the third Henry County, Ohio; Henry County Historical Society, Napoleon, Ohio, Volume II; 1976.
Acreage of nominated property Approximately 1 acre Quadrangle name Napoleon East UMT References Verbal boundary description and justification This nomination includes Lots 101-103 of the City of Napoleon; this defines the List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries State Center for Archival Collections - city or town Ohio, 43403 12.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 82003593, 63 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
3 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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