BlockFrom the record
One of 50 National Register listings published here for Walworth County · listed in 2013 · category: District.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Downtown Darien Historic District
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
The listing
- Address. Bounded by Wisconsin St. from W. Beloit to Fremont Sts., Darien, 53114
- When was it listed? September 2013
- Category. district
- Town. Darien town
- National Register reference number. 13000686 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
The ground it stands on
15,893 wordsThe chapter on Darien Town in History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources...its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin...and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution.., published 1882 names Darien. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
When, by act of the Territorial Legislature, approved January 2, 1838, the town of Dela- -van was created, consisting of four townships, the one now forming Darien was among the number. By an act approved January 6, 1840, Town 2 north, in Rango 15 east, was formed into a separate town, by the name of Darien, from a town of the same name in New York, from -which most of the early settlers came. The surface of the town is generally quite level, the greater portion of the rolling land being near the central and northern part.
Passage source: History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources...its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin...and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution.., published 1882.
Salmon Thomas, with his family, and his brother, Trumbull D.. moved into the present town of Darien in June, 1837. Mr. Thomas' brother had made his claim in the fall of 1836, and paid a man to put a log house on it, but when the family arrived they found the logs rolled up and covered, but no door or windows. They were obliged to cut a door through before they could get in.
Passage source: History of Walworth County, Wisconsin, Containing an Account of Its Settlement, Growth, Development and Resources...its War Record, Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Prominent Men and Early Settlers; the Whole Preceded by a History of Wisconsin...and an Abstract of Its Laws and Constitution.., published 1882.
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 Darien Town - 15,893 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Fires near this property
14 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Downtown Darien Historic District between 2018 and 2020, burning about 11 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 | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 June 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 191 |
| 3 May 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 58 |
| 7 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 1804008 |
| 4 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 117 |
| 30 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 135 |
| 3 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 19126 |
| 29 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 134 |
| 24 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 130 |
Mines and quarries near this property
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Downtown Darien Historic District: 4 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 still produce. What was taken out: 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.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ames Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Community Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Harness Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Hopkins Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Koehl Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Schutt Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Triebold Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this property
23 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Darien, the town this property stands in, in 23 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 13 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 2 tornado, 1 heavy rain. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $150,000 | no account filed |
| April 2026 | Tornado (EF1) | Darien | $133,000 | The tornado appeared to start north of School Section Rd and west of Old 89 Rd with mainly tree damage going to the east-northeast. The tornado then tracked along State Road 11 going east toward Delavan. About 4 farmsteads had damage to them, including one empty silo that was blown down from about halfway up. The tornado then continued east-southeast along Hwy 11 and ended near Redwood Ct on the west side of Delavan where it caused some tree damage. |
| May 2024 | Tornado (EF1) | Darien | $100,000 | Brief tornado went through mainly rural lands, but did hit a horse barn where farmers were actively feeding their horses. No injuries occurred, but a door blew in and nearly hit one of the farm workers. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $100,000 | Powerful thunderstorm wind gusts toppled several large trees and broke branches that brought down some power-lines. At least 6 homes sustained damage due to tree debris in the Walworth to Williams Bay area. |
| October 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $10,000 | Trees and power lines down. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $5,000 | A path of sporadic trees down, some large. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $2,000 | Some tree damage noted. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $1,000 | A large tree snapped at its base. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | $900 | no account filed |
| March 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | - | A video of a gustnado with dust airborne. No damage was noted after a ground survey via Emergency Management and NWS. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Darien | - | Powerful thunderstorm winds pushed over several large trees. |
| July 2008 | Heavy Rain | Darien | - | Heavy rains of 1 to 2 inches resulted in minor urban and small stream flooding. Stationary water depths on some roads reached a foot which resulted in the closure of STH 11 and STH 14. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
| October 2001 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
| April 2000 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Darien | - | no account filed |
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 milesOther 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 | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Israel Stowell Temperance House | 3.3 miles | 1978 |
 | Delavan's Vitrified Brick Street | 3.3 miles | 1996 |
| Delavan Water Tower Park Historic District | 3.3 miles | 2016 | |
| Delavan Downtown Commercial Historic District | 3.4 miles | 2016 | |
| Delavan's Vitrified Brick Street | 3.4 miles | 1996 |
 | Delavan Post Office | 3.4 miles | 2000 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 13000686 in Record Group 79. |
| Walworth County | All 50 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.