BlockFrom the record
One of 60 National Register listings published here for Sheboygan County · listed in 2016 · category: District.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Downtown Plymouth Historic District
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
The listing
- Address. Generally bounded by the 100, 200, 300 & 400 blks. of E. Mill St., Plymouth, 53073
- When was it listed? June 2016
- Category. district
- City. Plymouth city
- National Register reference number. 16000421 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
The ground it stands on
35,843 wordsThe chapter on Plymouth City in History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Past and Present, published 1912 names Plymouth. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Plymouth town was surveyed in 1835 by United States Engineers Mullet, Brincke and King, and the river which flows through the town, the Mullet, a branch of the Sheboygan river, was named after the first named engineer. It was called by the Indians, Ta-quit-qui-oc (crooked river). The town is in the second tier from the north and is bounded on the north by Rhine, on the east by Sheboygan Falls, the south by Lyndon, and the west by Greenbush towns. It is well watered by the Mullet river and several smaller streams. The first land sold to private parties in the present town of Plymouth was a portion of section i, to John Law, of London, England, August 13, 1836. The next entry was on the 23d of August, 1836, by Thomas Margrave, of London, on section 5. Other aliens also held titles to land in the town about this time.
Passage source: History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Past and Present, published 1912.
The town of Plymouth then comprising Rhine and Plymouth towns, was organized April 3, 1849. At the town meeting held on that date at the home of John W. Taylor, Daniel Hyatt was chosen temporary chairman, L. A. Babcock, clerk, and Albert Walton and Henry P. Davidson, trustees. There were then elected the following officers: Supervisors, Elon W. Baldwin, Daniel Hyatt and Francis Krackenberger ; clerk, James Cleveland; assessors, Adonijah Carter and Valentine Bub; superintendent of schools, Franklin Bond; treasurer, Hiram Bishop; justices of the peace, J. F. Moore, Erastus C. Sessions, Henry Giffin and Julius Wolff; constables, Samuel C. Jerome, S. D. Wilson and Augustus Bettlehauser ; sealer of weights and measures, Daniel Weary. The whole number of votes cast at the election was ninety.
Passage source: History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, Past and Present, published 1912.
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 Plymouth City - 35,843 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Fires near this property
25 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Downtown Plymouth Historic District between 2012 and 2020, burning about 12 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 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 | 12 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 September 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 352 |
| 4 August 2018 | Smoking | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 251 |
| 29 July 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 240 |
| 21 July 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | GLENBEULAH |
| 10 July 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 214 |
| 23 June 2018 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 189 |
| 16 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 156 |
| 15 June 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 193 |
Mines and quarries near this property
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Downtown Plymouth Historic District: 4 producers, 2 past producers. 4 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheboygan County Agricultural Dept | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Bucholz Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Crystal Lake Crushed Stone Quarry | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Jens Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Jones Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Northwest Area Operations | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this property
32 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Plymouth, the town this property stands in, in 32 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 13 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 7 lightning, 2 flash flood. The reports record 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1999 | Lightning | Plymouth | 2 hurt | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Flash Flood | Plymouth | $150,000 | Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding around Plymouth and south to the county line. Water depths on road surfaces reached 3 feet or more and there were gravel washouts. Some farm fields remained flooded into early July. The breakdown for residential home losses were: 20 minimally affected, and 20 with minor damage (total of $50 thousand for home losses). There were no business losses. Crop losses were estimated at $200 thousand. Public sector damage was about $100 thousand. A couple roads and bridges sustained damage. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $30,000 | A barn was toppled by strong winds. |
| August 2000 | Flash Flood | Plymouth | $30,000 | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Lightning | Plymouth | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Lightning | Plymouth | $10,000 | A lightning strike to a power pole near Plymouth destroyed insulators and damaged wire conductors, knocking out power to about 500 customers. Power was off to these customers for around 45 minutes. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $5,000 | Several power poles knocked down. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $5,000 | Tractor trailer overturned by straight-line winds. |
| May 2010 | Lightning | Plymouth | $5,000 | Lightning stuck an underground power cable in the 300 block of N. Highland Ave. in Plymouth. About 300 customers lost power for about 2.5 hours. |
| September 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Lightning | Plymouth | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $3,000 | Several trees down. |
| April 2011 | Lightning | Plymouth | $3,000 | Lightning struck a utility pole, destroying an insulator and caused an electrical wire to break and fall to the ground. 500 homes and businesses were left without power on the east side of Plymouth, until repairs were made and all power was restored around 915 pm CDT. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $2,000 | Uprooted tree fell onto a fence. Photo provided. |
| August 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $2,000 | Several trees down. |
| September 1997 | Lightning | Plymouth | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | $1,000 | Several trees knocked down by straight line winds of a bow echo. Power was knocked out in some parts of Plymouth. |
| July 1997 | Flood | Plymouth | $700 | no account filed |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | - | Wind gust of 63 mph measured at the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport ASOS. Reports of tree damage around Plymouth into Sheboygan as well. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Plymouth | - | A strong thunderstorm produced 1 inch hail. |
| March 2017 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| July 2014 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Funnel Cloud | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Plymouth | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Plymouth | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Hotel Laack | under 500 feet | 1985 |
 | Plymouth Post Office | 0.1 miles | 2000 |
 | Henry H. Huson House and Water Tower | 0.1 miles | 1980 |
 | S and R Cheese Company | 0.2 miles | 2017 |
 | Lueder, Rudolph, 13 Sided Barn | 3.7 miles | 2016 |
 | Glenbeulah Mill/Grist Mill | 4.7 miles | 1984 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 16000421 in Record Group 79. |
| Sheboygan County | All 60 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.