Oroville Chinese Temple

Built in 1863. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. 12 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.

From the record

“The Oroville Chinese Temple is a Chinese folk religious temple built in 1863 in Oroville, California. The temple is now owned by the City of Oroville and open to the public as a museum, and it also continues to be used occasionally for worship.”
Wikipedia article Oroville Chinese Temple, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 24 National Register listings published here for Butte County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1863.

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 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 1500 Broderick St., Oroville, 95965
When was it listed? July 1976
Category. building
Census division. Oroville
When was it built? 1863
National Register reference number. 76000478 - 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

1,259 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,259 fires within 5 miles of Oroville Chinese Temple between 1992 and 2020, burning about 33,793 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 196 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	503
Equipment and vehicle use	294
Arson/incendiarism	196
Debris and open burning	114
Misuse of fire by a minor	93
Smoking	22
Power generation/transmission/distribution	12
Railroad operations and maintenance	10
Natural	8
Recreation and ceremony	5
Other causes	1
Fireworks	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 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	R61D
9 September 2014	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Butte Unit	BANGOR
9 September 2011	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	Butte Unit	PALERMO
9 September 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Butte Unit	LARKIN IC WHITE 3
9 September 2000	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Butte Unit	WYNDOTTE
9 September 1994	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Butte Unit	TRUCK
9 September 1993	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Butte Unit	FEATHER
8 September 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Butte Unit	GAYLOR AVE ORO

Every fire recorded in Butte County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 48 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 48 workings within 5 miles of Oroville Chinese Temple: 19 past producers, 12 unknowns, 10 producers, 7 occurrences. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver, 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
Feather River District	Gold, Iridium, Platinum, Osmium	Past Producer	1849, 1895
Oroville District	Gold, Platinum	Past Producer	1849
Table Mountain Clay Products Co	Clay	Unknown
Unknown Name	Clay	Unknown
Amo	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Donnie Lee	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Lemroh	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Patterson-Inman Property	Gold, Silver	Past Producer
Dry Creek Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Natomas 100 Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Butte County

Storms near this property

13 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oroville, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 4 flood, 3 tornado, 2 hail, 2 heavy rain. The reports record 7 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
October 1999	Wildfire	Oroville	5 hurt, $480,000	no account filed
February 1994	Tornado (F2)	Oroville	2 hurt, $5,000,000	A tornado formed behind a cold front and traveled through a housing subdivision in Oroville. A total of 47 homes were damaged. One home was destroyed while 25 others suffered major damage. The funnel of the tornado was spotted by many residents and several descibed a "noise like a freight train". A full sized motorhome was toppled and pushed forward several feet.
September 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Oroville	$4,000,000	The media shared a wind damage report from the public which included images and videos. A hay barn and horse stable had pole and roof damage that can clearly be seen in the footage. The RAWS weather station at OpenShaw, which is close to the damage site, reported a 50 mph wind gust.
March 1994	Tornado (F0)	Oroville	$500,000	A resident saw the tornado illuminated by a lightning strike as it uprooted trees in his neighborhood. The falling trees damaged houses, and knocked out power lines.
February 2025	Flood	Oroville	$35,000	Road erosion damage was reported by local broadcast media on Middlehoff Lane due to heavy rain and roadway flooding. Nearly a dozen families living on this street were stranded and unable to cross the washed away segment of the roadway due to the depth of the erosion.
January 2005	Tornado (F1)	Oroville	$20,000	no account filed
November 2024	Flood	Oroville	-	California Highway Patrol reported roadway flooding along Highway 70 northbound at Garden Drive.
November 2024	Flood	Oroville	-	California Highway Patrol reported road flooding at Highway 70 at Garden Drive.
February 2019	Flood	South Oroville	-	Oroville Dam Blvd E roadway was flooded and completely blocked.
December 2019	Heavy Rain	Oroville	-	A trained spotter reported a total of 1.4 inches of rain had fallen at 1600 hours on December 7.
March 2018	Heavy Rain	South Oroville	-	Heavy rain fell. The 24 hour total rainfall was 1.63.
February 2001	Hail	Oroville	-	no account filed
February 2001	Hail	Oroville	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Butte County

Maps showing this location

12 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.

1891 USGS Chico quadrangle1:125000
1893 USGS Chico quadrangle1:125000
1895 USGS Chico quadrangle1:125000 - 8 printings
1912 USGS Oroville quadrangle1:31680 - 2 printings
1942 USGS Oroville quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1944 USGS Oroville quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1947 USGS Oroville quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Oroville quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000 - 4 printings
1960 USGS Chico quadrangle1:250000
1970 USGS Oroville quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1980 USGS Chico quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

5 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
Oroville Carnegie Library	0.2 miles	2007
US Post Office-Oroville Main	0.3 miles	1985
Oroville Commercial District (old)	0.3 miles	1983
State Theatre	0.4 miles	1991
Oroville Inn	6.3 miles	1990

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 76000478 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Butte County	All 24 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.