BlockFrom the record
One of 15 National Register listings published here for Merced County · listed in 2021 · category: Building.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Strand Theater
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021. 11 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1914.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Address. 655-661 West Main St., Merced, 95340
- When was it listed? December 2021
- Category. building
- Census division. Merced
- National Register reference number. 100007227 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Then and now
1914 to 1983The ground this property stands on, surveyed 69 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
Fires near this property
1,174 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,174 fires within 5 miles of Strand Theater between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,373 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 88 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 | 630 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 212 |
| Debris and open burning | 131 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 88 |
| Smoking | 46 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 43 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 11 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 5 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | NORTH BEAR CREEK DR E MCK |
| 9 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | PACIFIC |
| 9 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | DUNN |
| 9 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | BERMUDA |
| 9 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grasslands Wildlife Management Area | VASSAR |
| 9 September 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | ROADSIDE 262 |
| 8 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Merced-Mariposa Unit | STRETCH RD MCKEE |
| 8 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Merced-Mariposa Unit | HWY 140 E/ DELL ST |
Storms near this property
26 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merced, the town this property stands in, in 26 storm reports between 1995 and 2010: 6 heavy rain, 5 funnel cloud, 3 tornado, 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 1998 | Flash Flood | Merced | $9,600,000 | Over 65 homes and 19 apartments were flooded in and around Merced City as the result of torrential/record-setting rainfall in the previous 18 hours. |
| February 1998 | Heavy Rain | Merced | $2,000,000 | no account filed |
| November 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Merced | $45,000 | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Wildfire | Merced | $15,000 | The McNamera Fire was of unknown origin and burned about 650 acres before containment. One primary structure was lost but no injuries or fatalities were reported. |
| March 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Merced | $10,000 | A trained spotter noted a funnel cloud approaching the city of Merced and tracked the northward movement of that funnel. At 1448 PST the funnel removed half of the corrugated roof of a farm maintenance shop and lifted it up and over adjacent power lines to the north. Eyewitness accounts indicated rotation and movement of the lowest level clouds toward the NE approximately 0.19 miles. Other than two ground contact points, beginning and end of the damage track, there was no evidence of any other ground contact from the funnel. Analysis by a local structural engineer aided in the assignment of the F0 rating. |
| April 1996 | Tornado (F0) | Merced | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Heavy Rain | Merced | $7,500 | no account filed |
| February 2010 | Heavy Rain | Merced | - | Deep water reported on Westside Blvd at Howard due to heavy rainfall. |
| October 2004 | Funnel Cloud | Merced | - | Spotter reports indicated a funnel cloud east to southeast of Merced during the early afternoon of the 17th. |
| January 1999 | Funnel Cloud | Merced | - | Funnel cloud near Merced. |
| June 1998 | Lightning | Merced | - | Lightning strike on a tree in south Merced reported by a spotter. |
| March 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Merced | - | Spotter report of funnel almost touching the ground northwest of Merced. |
| March 1998 | Hail | Merced | - | Spotter report of 3/4" hail. |
| March 1998 | Lightning | Merced | - | Power outage to 700 customers of PG&E. |
| March 1998 | Hail | Merced | - | Merced County Sheriff reports plus reports from truck drivers indicated that hail was large and deep enough to cause cars to slide off State Highway 99 just north of the Merced/Madera County line. |
| March 1998 | Flood | Merced | - | Torrential thundershowers flooded over 25 surface streets in Merced during the afternoon of the 24th. |
| June 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Merced | - | Sheriff Department report of three-quarters hail in the City of Merced. Rainfall mostly within a one-hour period of time was 1.81 inches after 1325 PDT. Continued damage to valley agriculture likely but not specifically assessed to this storm (see Dos Palos Y below). |
| January 2006 | Lightning | Merced | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Merced | - | no account filed |
| February 2005 | Heavy Rain | Merced | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Funnel Cloud | Merced | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Merced | - | no account filed |
| November 2001 | Flood | Merced | - | no account filed |
| April 2000 | Flood | Merced | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Heavy Rain | Merced | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Heavy Rain | Merced | - | no account filed |
Maps showing this location
11 surveysUnited States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.
- 1914 USGS Merced quadrangle1:31680
- 1917 USGS Merced quadrangle1:31680
- 1946 USGS Merced quadrangle1:24000
- 1947 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Merced quadrangle1:24000
- 1956 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Merced quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Merced quadrangle1:62500
- 1962 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
- 1966 USGS San Jose quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Merced quadrangle1:100000
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 milesOther 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Tioga Hotel | under 500 feet | 1980 |
 | Bank of Italy, Merced | 0.1 miles | 2004 |
 | U.S. Post Office | 0.3 miles | 1983 |
| Merced County Courthouse | 0.3 miles | 1975 | |
 | Merced County High School | 0.3 miles | 1984 |
 | Merced Theatre | 0.3 miles | 2009 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 100007227 in Record Group 79. |
| Merced County | All 15 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.
- 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.