Coffee County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“The Coffee County Courthouse is a historic county courthouse in Courthouse Square in Elba, Alabama, United States, one of two county seats of Coffee County, Alabama. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1973.”
Wikipedia article Coffee County Courthouse (Elba, Alabama), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 5 National Register listings published here for Coffee County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.

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. Courthouse Sq., Elba, 36323
When was it listed? May 1973
Category. building
Census division. Elba
Architectural style. Romanesque Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 73000335 - 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

55 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Coffee County Courthouse between 1994 and 2020, burning about 432 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 12 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	21
Arson/incendiarism	12
Recreation and ceremony	8
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	7
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Natural	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Smoking	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
26 September 2008	Debris and open burning	8.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	CR 84, AL
23 September 2019	Arson/incendiarism	8.5 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190923-6
20 September 1997	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
19 September 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	12 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190919-25
19 September 2019	Arson/incendiarism	9.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190919-28
11 September 2019	Debris and open burning	2.5 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190911-11
5 August 1996	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
4 August 2015	Debris and open burning	2.7 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	SER-20150804-001

Every fire recorded in Coffee County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Coffee County Courthouse: 6 unknowns, 2 occurrences, 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, 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	Recorded
Southland Number 1	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer	Quartz
SE Alabama Iron District	Iron	Past Producer	1929
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed	Iron	Unknown
Unnamed Deposit	Iron	Occurrence
Unnamed Deposit	Iron	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Coffee County

Storms near this property

49 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elba, the town this property stands in, in 49 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 31 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 4 funnel cloud, 3 flash flood. The reports record 5 deaths and 3 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
March 1998	Flash Flood	Elba	4 killed, $105,000,000	A vigorous Gulf storm dumped up to 14 inches of rain across the northern half of Coffee County. The earthen levee on the Beaver Dam Creek breached. A six foot wall of water rushed into the city of Elba. Two thousand residents were forced to evacuate. Nearly 400 homes and businesses sustained flood damage. Approximately 52 county roads were washed out or flooded. The Pea River at Elba crested near 39.3 feet on March 9. Four people were killed when their vehicles were swept away by floodwaters. Coffee County was declared a federal disaster area.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	1 killed, $10,000	Numerous trees and power lines down. An elderly woman was killed when a tree fell on her vehicle at the intersection of County Roads 349 and 306. Reported by the Coffee County EMA.
November 2006	Tornado (F0)	Elba	2 hurt, $350,000	A tornado touched down just northeast of Elba. Most of the damage occurred along County Roads 235 and 279 and State Highway 125. Several mobile homes and sheds were destroyed. Two persons were injured when their doublewide mobile home was tossed into trees. Among the structures damaged were a collection tank and four roll-off containers at a county landfill, a home which lost its front porch and roof, and several trailers. There were numerous trees and utility poles uprooted.
January 2012	Lightning	Elba	1 hurt	The Enterprise Ledger reported that a teenager was struck by lightning and injured while at a car wash during the afternoon hours. He was taken to Elba General Hospital and then later transferred to Southeast Alabama Medical Center in Dothan where he was discharged two days later.
September 1998	Flash Flood	Elba	$2,500,000	Torrential rains of 8 to 24 inches produced the worst flash flooding in Geneva County since Hurricane Opal in 1995. Numerous roads were damaged or washed out. AL 54 was closed from Samson west to Florala. All county roads were closed for fear of more flooding and washouts. Significaant losses were incurred to peanut and cotton crops. Several creeks overflowed their banks closing AL 65, 54, and 52.
August 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$55,000	A pavillion was destroyed at a music park. ALABAMA, Southwest
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$50,000	Several trees were blown down just south of Elba. A few large trees fell on a house causing extensive damage.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$20,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$20,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$10,000	A tree fell on a house near the hospital.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$10,000	Power lines were blown down around Elba with a house damaged due to a fallen tree. The monetary damage figure provided is a rough estimate.
January 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$3,000	Trees and power lines down across Elba.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$3,000	Several power lines were blown down in the Elba area.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$3,000	Several trees and power lines were blown down in Elba.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$3,000	Trees and power lines were blown down around Elba.
August 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$2,000	Multiple trees and power lines were blown down in the Elba area.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$2,000	A tree blew down onto a power line near County Road 518, resulting in a power outage.
April 2019	Lightning	Elba	$1,000	Lightning struck a transformer on Highway 87 near Elba.
March 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$1,000	Several trees and a few power lines were blown down in Elba. Some roads were blocked by fallen debris.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$250	Several downed trees blocked roads in northern part of the city.
April 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$250	Several downed trees observed along State Highway 166.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	$250	The Coffee County EMA reported a few trees down on County Road 239.
January 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Several trees were blown down across Coffee county.
April 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A tree was blown down at 860 Old Samson Road.
April 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A tree was blown down onto Stroud Ave.
March 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Multiple trees were blown down near Highway 87 at Highway 125.
March 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Multiple trees were blown down along Farris Ave in Elba.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A tree was blown down on Herman Driggers Dr.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A few trees were blown down.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Several trees were blown down in Elba.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A tree was blown down in Elba.
January 2017	Flash Flood	Elba	-	Flooding was reported on East Davis and Claxton Roads. The roads were reported to be impassible.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Trees were blown down throughout Elba.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Trees were blown down in the city of Elba.
November 2015	Funnel Cloud	Elba	-	A funnel cloud was reported near Elba.
December 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A tree was blown down in Elba.
December 2011	Funnel Cloud	Elba	-	The public reported a funnel cloud behind a home to the Elba police department as it moved eastward. No reports of damage were received.
March 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	Several trees were blown down in Elba.
February 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Elba	-	A few trees were blown down on Highway 189 north of Elba.
December 2008	Flood	Elba	-	A portion of County Road 250 was closed due to high water.
June 2007	Hail	Elba	-	Penny size hail was reported.
April 2006	Hail	Elba	-	A SKYWARN storm spotter reported nickel size hail just north of Elba.
June 2004	Hail	Elba	-	Penny size hail reported at Shady Grove by the Coffee County EMA.
July 2004	Hail	Elba	-	Golfball size hail reported by the Coffee County EMA.
July 2004	Funnel Cloud	Elba	-	A funnel cloud was reported by the Coffee County EMA.
July 2004	Hail	Elba	-	Penny size hail reported by the Coffee County EMA.
April 1998	Hail	Elba	-	Dime sized hail reported by Coffee County EMA.
April 1998	Funnel Cloud	Elba	-	Public reports of funnel cloud across northern Coffee County including Elba.
April 1998	Hail	Elba	-	Golfball sized hail reported two miles south of Elba.

Every storm recorded in Coffee 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

1 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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Pea River Power Company Hydroelectric Facility	3.9 miles	1984

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000335 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Coffee County	All 5 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.