Kaiser's

Built in 1887 (Art Deco architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

“The Kaiser's building is a historic building in downtown Racine, Wisconsin. The longtime home of Maurice and Helen Kaiser's men's clothes store, the two-story building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places primarily for its Art Deco facade, which was redesigned by Frank J.”
Wikipedia article Kaiser's (Racine, Wisconsin), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 57 National Register listings published here for Racine County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · built in 1887, Art Deco 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. 218 6th St., Racine, 53403
When was it listed? November 1980
Category. building
City. Racine city
When was it built? 1887
Architectural style. Art Deco architecture
National Register reference number. 80000176 - 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

16,304 words

The chapter on Racine City in Official Record of the Old Settlers Society of Racine County, Wisconsin : with the Historical Address of Charles E. Dyer, Delivered at Burlington, Wis., February 22, 1871, published 1871 names Racine. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Resolved , That we, the early settlers of Racine county, extend a cordial greeting to each other on this, our first gathering, to revive the recollections and renew the friendships of the early days ; and we would return devout thanks to Him who has sustained and blessed us hitherto.

Passage source: Official Record of the Old Settlers Society of Racine County, Wisconsin : with the Historical Address of Charles E. Dyer, Delivered at Burlington, Wis., February 22, 1871, published 1871.

Resolved , That for beauty of landscape, fertility of soil, and easy access to market, for agricultural improvement? for improved stock, for general thrift, intelligence and morals, Racine county will, in our judgment, compare favorably with any other in the State.

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 Racine City - 16,304 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

23 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Kaiser's between 2018 and 2020, burning about 8 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	14
Debris and open burning	7
Smoking	1
Arson/incendiarism	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 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	203640
23 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	184317
7 August 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	183671
10 July 2018	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	1806005
6 June 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	202165
15 June 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	1801102
6 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	181717
6 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	181719

Every fire recorded in Racine County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Kaiser's: 1 unknown. None of them still produces. 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
	Rochester Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Racine County

Storms near this property

37 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Racine, the town this property stands in, in 37 storm reports between 1993 and 2006: 13 hail, 8 lightning, 7 thunderstorm wind, 4 flood. 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
July 2000	Flash Flood	Racine	$1,300,000	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	$150,000	no account filed
October 2001	Hail	Racine	$100,000	no account filed
August 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	$100,000	no account filed
October 2001	Flood	Racine	$50,000	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	$50,000	no account filed
July 2006	Lightning	Racine	$10,000	Lightning struck a home on in the 1600 block of Edgewood Ave., resulting in a roof fire.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	$10,000	no account filed
September 2001	Lightning	Racine	$9,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	$5,000	Trees down.
June 2002	Lightning	Racine	$5,000	no account filed
August 2002	Lightning	Racine	$5,000	no account filed
April 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	$5,000	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Racine	$3,000	Wind driven hail dented cars and siding.
July 2006	Lightning	Racine	$3,000	Lightning hit a tree, which then fell onto a car in the city of Racine.
June 1998	Lightning	Racine	$3,000	no account filed
July 2006	Lightning	Racine	$2,000	Lightning struck the chimney of a home in the 1000 block on Main St. in Racine. There was no fire, but the top portion of the chimney was destroyed, with bricks littering the nearby yard and sidewalk. The time of occurrence, 08CST is only an estimate - all that is known is that the lightning strike occurred during the morning hours.
September 1997	Flood	Racine	$1,000	no account filed
September 1997	Strong Wind	Racine	$1,000	no account filed
July 1997	Lightning	Racine	$100	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
May 2006	Funnel Cloud	Racine	-	no account filed
August 2005	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
August 2005	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Racine	-	no account filed
November 2003	Heavy Rain	Racine	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
August 2002	Funnel Cloud	Racine	-	no account filed
May 2000	Hail	Racine	-	no account filed
July 2000	Flood	Racine	-	no account filed
April 1999	Flood	Racine	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Racine 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
Badger Building	under 500 feet	1980
Young Men's Christian Association Building	under 500 feet	1982
St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Chapel, Guildhall, and Rectory	under 500 feet	1979
US Post Office-Racine Main	under 500 feet	1985
Historic Sixth Street Business District	under 500 feet	1988
Rickeman Grocery Building	0.1 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80000176 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Racine County	All 57 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.