Merritt Black House

Built in 1898 (Queen Anne style). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

From the record

“The Merritt Black House is a historic house built in 1898 along the Fox River in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. In 1984 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article Merritt Black House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 51 National Register listings published here for Outagamie County · listed in 1984 · category: Building · built in 1898, Queen Anne style.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · 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. Black, Merritt, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 104 River Rd., Kaukauna, 54130
When was it listed? March 1984
Category. building
Also known as. Kaukauna MRA
City. Kaukauna city
When was it built? 1898
Architectural style. Queen Anne style
National Register reference number. 84003752 - 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

23 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Merritt Black House between 2018 and 2020, burning about 13 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	12
Debris and open burning	5
Arson/incendiarism	3
Smoking	2
Equipment and vehicle use	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 August 2020	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	20CL029
14 August 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	2020055
7 July 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	AP00199
30 July 2019	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	36
25 July 2018	Smoking	1.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	18BU001
19 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	200931
19 July 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	235
1 July 2018	Smoking	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	28

Every fire recorded in Outagamie County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Merritt Black House: 3 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Kaukauna Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Bodde Road Gravel Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
R Evers Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Van Handel Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Outagamie County

Storms near this property

18 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kaukauna, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 lightning. 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
April 2011	Tornado (EF2)	Kaukauna	$6,700,000	A fast moving tornado touched down in the southwest side of Kaukauna near County Road CE at 8:43 pm CDT (1743 CST). The tornado cut through the center of a subdivision as it moved north-northeast to near the Fox River before lifting off the ground. Seven homes were destroyed, 24 homes and four businesses sustained major damage, and 160 other homes sustained minor damage. Several houses lost large sections of their roofs (DI 2, DOD 6) in the hardest hit area of the city. The average path width was 125 yards.
August 2010	Flash Flood	Kaukauna	$25,000	Heavy rain fell across the Fox Valley, causing flash flooding near Kaukauna. Nearby Darboy measured 3.50 inches of rain during the morning storms. Kankapot Creek in Kaukauna flooded Highway KK, which was closed for some time. Wisconsin International Raceway, which was hosting a Pyrotechnics Guild International event, had to be evacuated due to the flood.
August 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Kaukauna	$15,000	Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Kaukauna.
August 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Kaukauna	$4,000	Thunderstorm winds snapped large trees about five feet above the ground in Kaukauna.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Kaukauna	$2,000	no account filed
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Kaukauna	-	Thunderstorm winds downed trees and power lines in Kaukauna. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
May 2024	Tornado (EF1)	Kaukauna	-	A tornado formed at 8:58 pm CDT southwest of the village of Kaukauna in southeastern Outagamie County and continued northeast before dissipating at 9:02 pm CDT in Central Park on the Fox River. Total path length is estimated to be 2.69 miles long, with a width of 80 yards. Peak wind estimated to be around 100 mph.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Kaukauna	-	Thunderstorm winds downed trees and power lines in Kaukauna and Little Chute. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
September 2021	Hail	Kaukauna	-	Half dollar size hail fell in Kaukauna. The time of this event is an estimate based on radar data.
May 2011	Hail	Kaukauna	-	Golf ball size hail fell in Kaukauna.
May 2011	Funnel Cloud	Kaukauna	-	A funnel cloud was reported by the public over Kaukauna.
August 2010	Hail	Kaukauna	-	Hail described as grape size fell in Kaukauna.
January 2008	Hail	Kaukauna	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Kaukauna	-	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Kaukauna	-	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Kaukauna	-	no account filed
August 1998	Hail	Kaukauna	-	no account filed
June 1998	Lightning	Kaukauna	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Outagamie 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
Charles W. Stribley House	under 500 feet	1984
Holy Cross Church	0.4 miles	1984
Free Public Library of Kaukauna	0.5 miles	1984
Fargo's Furniture Store	0.5 miles	1984
US Post Office, Former	0.5 miles	1992
Julius J. Martens Company Building	0.5 miles	1984

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 84003752 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Outagamie County	All 51 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.