Bigelow School

Built in 1929 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

From the record

“The Bigelow School is a historic former school located at 4228 W. The one-story red brick school was built in 1929; it was one of the last schools built in Mequon and is one of many extant school buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the city.”
Wikipedia article Bigelow School (Mequon, Wisconsin), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 38 National Register listings published here for Ozaukee County · listed in 2000 · category: Building · built in 1929, Neoclassical architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 4228 W. Bonniwell Rd., Mequon, 53097
When was it listed? July 2000
Category. building
City. Mequon city
When was it built? 1929
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 00000851 - 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

6 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Bigelow School between 2018 and 2020, burning about 8 acres in total. 1 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	3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Natural	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 August 2018	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	180850
25 May 2020	Natural	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	20675
4 April 2019	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	190468
28 April 2018	Debris and open burning	6.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	18486
26 March 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	18331
19 March 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	18296

Every fire recorded in Ozaukee County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Bigelow School: 2 producers, 1 past producer. 2 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Cedarburg Stone	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
H.F. Prahl Corp. Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Rowe Sand and Gravel, Inc.	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Ozaukee County

Storms near this property

19 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mequon, the town this property stands in, in 19 storm reports between 1997 and 2021: 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 3 flash flood, 3 lightning. The reports record 3 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2001	Lightning	Mequon	3 hurt, $20,000	no account filed
June 1997	Flash Flood	Mequon	$3,600,000	no account filed
June 2010	Lightning	Mequon	$1,000,000	A lightning strike in the city of Mequon resulted in a fire at a strip mall in the 1100 block of North Port Washington Road that destroyed 9 businesses. Time is estimated. Other severe weather was reported in southern Wisconsin during the pre-dawn hours of June 23, 2010.
July 2005	Lightning	Mequon	$500,000	no account filed
June 2008	Flash Flood	Mequon	$462,160	Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding from the Mequon area northeast to the Belgium to Port Washington area. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. One hundred twenty-seven homes had minor damage, and 191 homes had major damage (total of $3.765 million for all home property losses). Business losses were about $810 thousand. Crops losses were estimated at $500 thousand. Public sector damage was about $1.1 million. There were several roads and bridges that sustained damage.
May 2000	Flash Flood	Mequon	$75,000	no account filed
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Mequon	$10,000	Trees and power lines down.
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Mequon	$3,000	no account filed
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Mequon	$2,000	Powerful thunderstorm winds toppled large trees. Estimated wind gusts were on the order of 52 knots (60 mph).
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Mequon	$1,000	Many tree branches down.
August 2021	Heavy Rain	Mequon	-	Urban street flooding in far southern Ozaukee County, especially on portions of Mequon Rd. and Port Washington Rd.
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Mequon	-	Law enforcement officers reported numerous trees and power lines downed in a 5-mile wide swath from west of Mequon to Port Washington from damaging severe thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 56 knots (65 mph).
June 2016	Hail	Mequon	-	no account filed
April 2007	Heavy Rain	Mequon	-	no account filed
September 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Mequon	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Mequon	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Mequon	-	no account filed
August 2003	Hail	Mequon	-	no account filed
March 2000	Hail	Mequon	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ozaukee 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Hamilton Historic District	1.3 miles	1976
Concordia Mill	1.4 miles	1974
Jonathan Clark House	1.4 miles	1982
Edwin J. Nieman Sr. House	1.6 miles	1996
Frank Vocke Octagonal Barn	1.7 miles	2016
Wayside House	2.2 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 00000851 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ozaukee County	All 38 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.