A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1919. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
From the record
“The Farmers and Merchants Union Bank is a historic commercial building at 159 West James Street in Columbus, Wisconsin. Built in 1919, it is the last of eight "jewel box" bank buildings designed by Louis Sullivan, and the next to last to be constructed.”
Wikipedia article Farmers and Merchants Union Bank (Columbus, Wisconsin), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 55 National Register listings published here for Columbia County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · built in 1919, by Louis Sullivan · a National Historic Landmark.
National Register reference number.72000044- 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
57 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 57 fires within 5 miles of Farmers and Merchants Union Bank
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 89 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
28
Equipment and vehicle use
16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
8
Smoking
2
Misuse of fire by a minor
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. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of Farmers and Merchants Union Bank: 2 unknowns, 1 producer, 1 past producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. 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
Columbus, the town this property stands in, in 27 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 19 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flood, 2 funnel cloud.
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.
Widespread tree damage in the city of Columbus with many of the roads blocked by debris. A State of Emergency was declared in the city. Numerous large tree branches and trunks snapped. Some large trees uprooted. A few trees downed on homes. Some power poles knocked down or leaning. The Red Cross opened a shelter at Columbus Middle School for those without power in order to seek relief from the heat and humidity.
Two large trees blown down and a pine tree snapped at 80 feet high in a neighborhood. Additional trees and tree limbs down in the neighborhood and across Columbus. One tree felled on a home causing roof damage.
The flooding of the Crawfish River resulted in portions of River Rd. and Campbell St. flooding near the highway 16/60 bridge. The high river stage was impacting the bottom portion of the bridge. Neighborhood yards flooded in the vicinity of the river.
Law enforcement officials reported trees two feet in diameter blown down by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 65 mph (56 knots) along a path from 2 miles south of Columbus to Fall River.
Powerful thunderstorms winds knocked down large trees southwest of Columbus. A school mesonet site (Madison TV-15) 1 mile south-southwest of Columbus had a measured gust of 84.3 mph (73 knots).
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.
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.
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