William J. Owen Store

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

From the record

One of 141 National Register listings published here for Rock County · listed in 1982 · category: Building.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Owen, William J., Store - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 220 Depot St., Footville, 53548
When was it listed? May 1982
Category. building
Also known as. Footville MRA
Village. Footville village
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 82000707 - 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

2,487 words

The chapter on Footville Village in The History of Rock County, Wisconsin; Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., published 1879 names Footville. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

The Church of the Bisciples of Christ, a branch of the one located in the town of Center, controlled by the same Trustees and supplied by the same minister, was organized in 1869, with about twenty-five members, the reason being the distance which members living in Footville had to traverse before reaching the church. Up to 1875, they held their meetings in a hall, and in that year they erected the present church, at a cost of $1,450. It is a frame building, with a seating capacity of about two hundred. They have now a membership of about forty, the spiritual charge of whom is confided to the care of the Rev. Mr. Morrison, of the town of Center.

Passage source: The History of Rock County, Wisconsin; Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., published 1879.

That same year, a small frame church was erected, at a cost of $1,000 ; but, in consequence of the increased membership, which now numbers about three hundred, it was deemed necessary to enlarge it, and this year, a neat frame addition was made, at a cost of about $2,000. They have no resident minister, the charge being Brodhead, Albany and Footville, the priest being the Rev. Michael Wynne.

Passage source: The History of Rock County, Wisconsin; Its Early Settlement, Growth, Development, Resources, Etc., published 1879.

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 Footville Village - 2,487 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

10 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of William J. Owen Store between 1995 and 2020, burning about 53 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
Debris and open burning	3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Smoking	2
Arson/incendiarism	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
6 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	1805099
1 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	1805092
6 April 2000	Smoking	44 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
29 April 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	82
23 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	1804082
11 April 1998	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
9 March 2018	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	37
30 March 2018	Debris and open burning	8.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	61

Every fire recorded in Rock County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of William J. Owen Store: 4 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Egan Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Hanover Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
C. Johnson Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Footville Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Hanke Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Miller Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Rock County

Storms near this property

8 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Footville, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2010: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail. 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	Footville	$18,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Footville	$5,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Footville	$2,000	no account filed
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Footville	$1,000	no account filed
August 2006	Hail	Footville	-	Large hail ranging from 1.00 inch to 2.50 inches fell from 1 mile west of Footville to 4 miles west of Beloit.
October 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Footville	-	Powerful thunderstorm winds knocked down large trees.
May 2010	Hail	Footville	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Footville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Rock 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
Footville State Bank	under 500 feet	1982
Footville Condensery	0.3 miles	1982
Soloman J. Strang House	0.3 miles	1982
Orfordville Depot	3.7 miles	1988
Samuel Smiley House	4.8 miles	1982
Gempeler Round Barn	6.1 miles	1979

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 82000707 in Record Group 79.
Rock County	All 141 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.