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Photograph of Baileys Harbor Town Hall-McArdle Library
Photograph by Royalbroil, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Baileys Harbor Town Hall-McArdle Library

Built in 1937 (Colonial Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

From the record

“The Baileys Harbor Town Hall-McArdle Library is located in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.”

Wikipedia article Baileys Harbor Town Hall-McArdle Library, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 68 National Register listings published here for Door County · listed in 2000 · category: Building · built in 1937, Colonial Revival architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · 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.
  • Listed as. Baileys Harbor Town Hall--McArdle Library - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
  • Address. 2392 Cty Trunk Highway F, Baileys Harbor, 54202
  • When was it listed? April 2000
  • Category. building
  • Also known as. Public Library Facilities of Wisconsin MPS
  • Town. Baileys Harbor town
  • When was it built? 1937
  • Architectural style. Colonial Revival architecture
  • National Register reference number. 00000408 - 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

5,512 words

The chapter on Baileys Harbor Town in History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917 names Baileys Harbor. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Baileys Harbor enjoys the distinction of being the first place in Door County that was selected for a village site. Not only this, but it was officially selected as the county seat several years before Door County's actual organization was effected. The genesis of this early Baileys Harbor boom is as follows:

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

Elated. with his discovery Captain Bailey took with him several cords of building stone and firewood and proceeded on his way to Milwaukee. Here he gave such an enthusiastic account of the harbor he had discovered that among other captains of the line "Baileys Harbor" at once became a famous place. The owner of the line, Mr. Alanson Sweet, also became very much interested in the samples of stone and wood that Captain Bailey had brought with him. Mr. Sweet was doing an extensive business in the forwarding and commission business and owned about a dozen large vessels. These plied between Milwaukee and Buffalo. On the way down there were always large cargoes of grain to be carried but on the way up the freight was scant and uncertain, consisting chiefly of salt and immigrants.

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

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 Baileys Harbor Town - 5,512 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

8 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Baileys Harbor Town Hall-McArdle Library between 1998 and 2020, burning about 91 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 burning5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Arson/incendiarism1

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
4 July 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources27
23 June 1998Debris and open burning88 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 May 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources61
15 May 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources20
15 May 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources15
25 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources13
25 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources12
4 February 2019Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources44

Every fire recorded in Door County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Baileys Harbor Town Hall-McArdle Library: 3 producers, 1 past producer. 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Door County QuarriesStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Becker PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Josephs PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Walter Fischer Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Door County

Storms near this property

11 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Baileys Harbor, the town this property stands in, in 11 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 7 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind. 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
August 2025Thunderstorm WindBaileys Harbor-Thunderstorm winds produced widespread tree damage across Cana Island. This tree damage temporarily stranded campers on the island as the roads were inaccessible due to trees blocking the roads. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
May 2022HailBaileys Harbor-Nickel size hail fell in Baileys Harbor.
May 2022HailBaileys Harbor-Penny size hail fell northeast of Baileys Harbor.
May 2018HailBaileys Harbor-A thunderstorm dropped quarter size hail in Baileys Harbor.
August 2013Thunderstorm WindBaileys Harbor-Thunderstorm winds knocked down power lines and tree branches near Baileys Harbor.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindBaileys Harbor-Thunderstorm winds downed a tree and power pole near County highway E and Maple Road, knocking out power to much of Baileys Harbor.
June 2008HailBaileys Harbor-no account filed
September 1998Thunderstorm WindBaileys Harbor-no account filed
September 1998HailBaileys Harbor-no account filed
August 1998HailBaileys Harbor-no account filed
March 1998HailBaileys Harbor-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Door 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.

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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
August Zahn Balcksmith Shop and Houseunder 500 feet2000
Globe Hotel0.2 miles1982
EMILIN (schooner) Shipwreck0.2 miles2023
PEORIA Shipwreck (Schooner)0.3 miles2024
Albert Zahn House0.3 miles2000
Baileys Harbor Range Light0.5 miles1989

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 00000408 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Door CountyAll 68 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.
  • 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.