Chambers County Courthouse Square Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

“The Chambers County Courthouse Square Historic District comprises the central portion of LaFayette, Alabama, United States, centered on the Chambers County Courthouse. The courthouse is located in a square, surrounded by an early 20th century commercial district on LaFayette Street, Alabama Avenue, First Street SE and First Avenue.”
Wikipedia article Chambers County Courthouse Square Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Chambers County · listed in 1980 · category: District.

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

The listing

Address. Roughly bounded by Alabama and 2nd Aves., and 1st St., LaFayette, 36862
When was it listed? March 1980
Category. district
Census division. La Fayette
National Register reference number. 80000682 - 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

93 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 93 fires within 5 miles of Chambers County Courthouse Square Historic District between 1994 and 2019, burning about 456 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 14 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	41
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15
Arson/incendiarism	14
Recreation and ceremony	6
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	5
Smoking	4
Natural	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
25 September 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	20160925-15
18 September 2005	Debris and open burning	2.5 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
16 September 2019	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	20190916-12
16 September 2010	Debris and open burning	3.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
15 September 1998	Smoking	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
11 September 1998	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
10 September 2002	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
6 August 2011	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	EAST OF LAFAYETTE, AL

Every fire recorded in Chambers County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Chambers County Courthouse Square Historic District: 3 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Aluminum, Clay. 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
Unnamed Occurrence	Aluminum, Clay	Occurrence	1982
Unnamed Occurrence	Aluminum, Clay	Occurrence	1982
Unnamed Occurrence	Aluminum, Clay	Occurrence	1982

Every working recorded in Chambers County

Storms near this property

47 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names LaFayette, the town this property stands in, in 47 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 25 hail, 17 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 2 flash 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
March 1994	Tornado (F1)	Lafayette	$500,000	A barn was demolished, a roof blown off a porch, damage to two houses, and numerous trees blown down in Chambers County. The damage occurred in an area running west to east south of Highway 50 from about three miles east of the Highway 50/county line to the Chambers County Public Lake.
September 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$500,000	Thunderstorm wind was believed to be responsible for damage to four houses just off U.S. Highway 431 about three miles north of Lafayette in the Buffalo community. People reported a sound like a freight train when the damage occurred.
November 2006	Tornado (F0)	Lafayette	$50,000	The tornado briefly touched down about three-quarters of a mile north of Lafayette. Numerous large trees were knocked onto a home at the intersection of US 431 and State Highway 77. Several sheds were destroyed and a large trailer was blown over.
March 2005	Hail	Lafayette	$14,000	The supercell continued along its northeastward path and dropped hail across northern Chambers County. The largest hail reported was golf ball size.
May 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$10,000	Trees were blown down at several locations around Chambers County. A few vehicles were damaged by the fallen trees.
April 1998	Hail	Lafayette	$10,000	no account filed
December 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$10,000	no account filed
April 1997	Hail	Lafayette	$8,000	Golf ball size hail was reported in Lafayette, in the central part of the county.
June 1997	Hail	Lafayette	$6,000	Golf ball sized hail was reported by the EMA.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$5,000	Numerous large trees were blown down in the southern portion of the county.
March 2003	Hail	Lafayette	$5,000	Golf ball size hail was reported in Lafayette.
February 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$5,000	Trees were downed along US 431 in Chambers County.
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$5,000	A few trees were down in the Five Points area of Lafayette.
April 1998	Hail	Lafayette	$5,000	no account filed
January 1997	Hail	Lafayette	$5,000	no account filed
July 2005	Flash Flood	Lafayette	$4,000	Several roadways near Lafayette were flooded and temporarily impassable.
March 2002	Hail	Lafayette	$3,000	Golfball size hail was reported south of Lafayette near the Chambers and Lee county line.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$2,000	Several trees were blown down around the city of Lafayette.
May 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$2,000	A few trees and several large limbs were blown down near AL-50, west of Lafayette.
January 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	$2,000	One large tree was knocked down and blocked CR 289. The tree caused damage to a fence and a pole.
June 1998	Hail	Lafayette	$2,000	Quarter size hail was reported in Lafayette.
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	A metal building was blown onto Highway 431, and trees were downed in multiple locations around Lafayette.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Trees were reported down at LaFayette High School, along 2nd Avenue, and along U.S. Highway 431 near LaFayette. Social media video and photos showed a tree that fell on a vehicle in LaFayette. The occupant escaped without injury. Another tree was downed on CR 102 just north of town as well.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Several trees uprooted and power lines downed in Lafayette.
March 2023	Hail	Lafayette	-	Tennis ball size hail reported on the southeast side of Lafayette.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Numerous trees uprooted and power lines downed in Lafayette. Numerous trees uprooted reported countywide.
April 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Several trees uprooted and power lines downed in the city of Lafayette.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Several trees uprooted in the town of Lafayette.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Numerous trees uprooted across the eastern portion of the county.
June 2014	Flash Flood	Lafayette	-	A garage and property around a home flooded. Radar estimated 4.5 inches of rain.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Lafayette	-	Trees were reported down in the city of Lafayette, causing numerous power outages.
May 2006	Hail	Lafayette	-	Golf ball sized hail was reported in the Oak Bowery community.
February 2005	Hail	Lafayette	-	Penny size hail was observed in the city of Lafayette.
August 2005	Hail	Lafayette	-	Penny size hail was reported near Lafayette.
December 2005	Hail	Lafayette	-	Quarter size hail was reported just north of Lanett and West Point along the west side of West PointLake.
December 2005	Hail	Lafayette	-	Penny size hail was observed near the Trammel Crossroads community.
June 2001	Hail	Lafayette	-	Dime size hail fell from just west of Lafayette to Lanett.
April 1998	Hail	Lafayette	-	Dime size hail was reported in Lafayette.
April 1995	Hail	LaFayette	-	Quarter-size hail was reported at Standing Rock in northeast Chambers County.
April 1995	Hail	Lafayette	-	Golf ball-size hail was reported in south-central Chambers County through the Lee County Emergency Management Agency.
May 1994	Hail	Lafayette	-	Large hail was reported near Lafayette in central Chambers County.
June 2010	Hail	Lafayette	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Lafayette	-	no account filed
April 2007	Hail	Lafayette	-	no account filed
March 2006	Hail	Lafayette	-	no account filed
July 2005	Tornado (F0)	Lafayette	-	no account filed
April 1998	Hail	Lafayette	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chambers 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

3 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
Vines Funeral Home and Ambulance Service	0.5 miles	2008
Ernest McCarty Oliver House	2.6 miles	1974
New Hope Rosenwald School	7.4 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80000682 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Chambers County	All 10 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.