Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1993. 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
“House is a historic house in downtown Middleport, a village located on the banks of the Ohio River in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Built in 1859, it was the home of prominent Middleport resident John B.”
Wikipedia article John Downing Jr. House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 8 National Register listings in Meigs County · listed in 1993 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.93000403- 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
84 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 84 fires within 5 miles of Downing, John, Jr., House between
1992 and 2020, burning about 64 acres in total. None started naturally. 26 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
39
Arson/incendiarism
26
Equipment and vehicle use
7
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Smoking
2
Fireworks
2
Railroad operations and maintenance
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 209 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Downing, John, Jr., House between 1840 and
1973: 169 Animalia, 37 Plantae, 2 Fungi, 1 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by Bartholomew, E.A.; Wilson, D., C. H. Jones, Charles M. Roberts 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
2 workings within 5 miles of Downing, John, Jr., House: 1 past producer, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Aluminum, 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Middleport, the town this property stands in, in 23 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 13 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 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.
Multiple trees and power lines were blown down onto the intersection of Main Street and Rutland Street in Middleport, which blocked the roadway for a brief period of time.
Several rivers and creeks rose out of their banks in Meigs County, leading to multiple road closures. Across the central part of the county, flooding impacted portions of Kingsbury Road, Route 143, Route 124 from Dead Mans Curve Road to State Route 325, and Noble Summit Road near McElhinney Hill Road and Bradbury Road.
Minor backwater flooding was seen along the Ohio River. The river gauge at Point Pleasant in West Virginia crested at 41.3 feet early on the 7th. Flood stage is 40 feet.
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
4,136 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.
Statement of significance
Period of Significance Certitying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: *locally Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) 1914-1942 State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. United States Department of the Interlor National Park Service Natlonal Register of Historlc Places John Downing Jr. House, Meigs Co., Ohio The Downing House is being nominated for its significance under Criterion B in the area of commerce becauseit was the home of John B.
It is also significant under Criterion Cin the area of architecture for the changes that occurred in 192l making the Downing House a good example identified work of the prominent Charleston, West Virginia, architect insurance business in an addition to the house in 1868. His son, John B. over the family insurance business. West Virginia and Kentucky following: Middleport at public schools, and at thirteen went to work in his father's to four generations of Downings. Rodney's son, John B. Downing, was a The "Major" retired to the family home in Middleport and opened an (the "Major's") insurance business. While he stayed with that business, Downing, Jr., a locally prominent businessman and founder of a local bank. Union fleet of gunboats past the beseiged city of Vicksburg (MS).
He was Charles B. Galbreath wrote about John B. Downing, Jr.,in his History known as Mark Twain. Clemens wrote about Downing as "Aligator Jack" in he branched out into a wide scope of business enterprises, including the Life on the Mississippi. The Downing House, built in l859 for Rodney Downing, has been home wounded at this battle.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 93000403, 27 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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