Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. 22 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1897.
From the record
“The Norris House is a historic house located at 1247 Cowper St. in Palo Alto, California. The house was built in 1927 for Kathleen Norris, a novelist and columnist who was once the highest-paid female author in the United States, and her husband Charles Gilman Norris, also a noted novelist.”
Wikipedia article Norris House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 117 National Register listings published here for Santa Clara County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.80000859- 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.
Then and now
1897 to 1997
The ground this property stands on, surveyed
100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are
United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.
18971997
Fires near this property
189 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 189 fires within 5 miles of Norris House
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 138 acres in total. None started naturally. 15 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
119
Equipment and vehicle use
26
Arson/incendiarism
15
Smoking
12
Misuse of fire by a minor
9
Debris and open burning
6
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
Recreation and ceremony
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
8 September 2010
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
6 September 2013
Equipment and vehicle use
1.2 acres
San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit
ALPINE
5 September 2019
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit
not named
5 September 2011
Arson/incendiarism
under an acre
Santa Clara Unit
not named
5 September 2009
Debris and open burning
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
30 September 2018
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
NB HWY 280 / SAND HILL R
30 September 2010
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
not named
28 September 2009
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
12 workings within 5 miles of Norris House: 4 producers, 4 past producers, 3 unknowns, 1 occurrence.
4 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Silver, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Copper, Tin, Palladium. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Palo Alto, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 3 flood, 1 funnel cloud, 1 hail, 1 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.
Lightning struck a utility pole in Palo Alto early Sunday morning causing a small fire and causing about 4,500 customers to lose power https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2020/08/16/storm-brings-fires-power-outages-to-the-bay-area.
A funnel cloud was reported over the mud flats on the East side of HWY 101 in Palo Alto.. No buildings and only low vegetation exsist in this low lying area so it could not be confirmed if the funnel actually touched down in this area.
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.
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.
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.
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