Ventura County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1904.

From the record

“The Ventura County Courthouse, known since 1974 as Ventura City Hall, is a historic building in Ventura, California. Located on a hill at the top of California Street, it overlooks the city's downtown district with views of the Santa Barbara Channel and Channel Islands.”
Wikipedia article Ventura County Courthouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 39 National Register listings published here for Ventura County · listed in 1971 · category: Building.

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.
Address. 501 Poli St., Ventura, 93001
When was it listed? August 1971
Category. building
Census division. Ventura
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
Architect. Albert C. Martin, Sr.
National Register reference number. 71000211 - 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

53 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 53 fires within 5 miles of Ventura County Courthouse between 2005 and 2020, burning about 5,540 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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	35
Smoking	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Arson/incendiarism	4
Debris and open burning	2
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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 2006	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
6 September 2006	Smoking	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
5 September 2007	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
24 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
21 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
20 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
17 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
16 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Ventura County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Ventura County Courthouse: 9 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, 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
Ventura River Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Ventura Expandable Shale	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Ventura River Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Ventura Velvet Molding Sand Dpst.	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Associated Oil Co. Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Connett Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Peoples Lumber Co.	Clay	Past Producer
Rocklite Quarry	Clay	Past Producer
Shell Oil Co.	Clay	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Ventura County

Storms near this property

16 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ventura, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 7 flood, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 waterspout. 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
February 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Ventura	-	Strong thunderstorm winds produced significant wind damage in the city of Ventura.
October 2025	Flood	Ventura	-	California Highway Patrol reported significant roadway flooding at the intersection of Highway 101 and Seaward Avenue.
February 2024	Flash Flood	Ventura	-	Significant flooding was reported in downtown Ventura in the area of Thompson Boulevard and Main Street.
February 2024	Flash Flood	Ventura	-	Flash flooding resulted in the closure of the #1 and #2 lanes of Highway 101 from Seaward Avenue to California Street.
January 2023	Flood	Ventura	-	Heavy rainfall produced significant flooding across Highway 101 near the Highway 33 interchange.
January 2023	Flash Flood	Ventura	-	The Santa Clara River breached the bridge, flooding both directions and broke the center divide.
October 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Ventura	-	Gusty thunderstorm outflow winds impacted the valleys of Ventura county. An automated sensor at Crimea Fire Station reported a gust of 63 MPH.
December 2019	Tornado (EF0)	Ventura	-	A strong thunderstorm generated a weak tornado over Ventura Harbor (in Ventura county). Only very minor damage was reported.
March 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Ventura	-	A severe thunderstorm generated strong winds across coastal sections of Ventura county. At Ventura Harbor, wind gusts to 65 MPH were reported.
December 2001	Flood	Ventura	-	A weather spotter reported street flooding in the community of Ventura.
September 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Ventura	-	A line of severe thunderstorms produced strong winds across southern Ventura county. In Ventura, the winds knocked down several power poles.
January 2001	Waterspout	Ventura	-	no account filed
November 2001	Flood	Ventura	-	no account filed
November 2001	Flood	Ventura	-	no account filed
February 2000	Flood	Ventura	-	no account filed
April 2000	Flood	Ventura	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ventura County

Maps showing this location

9 surveys

United 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.

1904 USGS Ventura quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1941 USGS Ventura quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1951 USGS Ventura quadrangle1:24000 - 7 printings
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1982 USGS Santa Barbara quadrangle1:100000 - 3 printings

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
Emmanuel Franz House	0.1 miles	1982
Ventura Theatre	0.2 miles	1986
Elizabeth Bard Memorial Hospital	0.2 miles	1977
Mission San Buenaventura and Mission Compound Site	0.3 miles	1975
Feraud General Merchandise Store	0.5 miles	1986
First Baptist Church of Ventura	0.5 miles	2009

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 71000211 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Ventura County	All 39 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.