Photograph of Old Town Eureka — Photograph by Jan Kronsell, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Eureka Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1922.

From the record

“Old Town Eureka in Eureka, California, is a historic district listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. It is a 350-acre (1.4 km2) area containing 154 buildings mostly from the Victorian era.”
Wikipedia article Old Town Eureka, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 52 National Register listings published here for Humboldt County · listed in 1991 · category: District.

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

The listing

Address. Roughly, First, Second and Third Sts., between C and N Sts., Eureka, 95501
When was it listed? October 1991
Category. district
Census division. Eureka
National Register reference number. 91001523 - 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

1922 to 1987

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 65 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Eureka Historic District, surveyed 1987

Topographic sheet covering Eureka Historic District, surveyed 1922

Fires near this property

100 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 100 fires within 5 miles of Eureka Historic District between 1992 and 2020, burning about 539 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	40
Debris and open burning	15
Arson/incendiarism	14
Recreation and ceremony	13
Equipment and vehicle use	12
Misuse of fire by a minor	3
Smoking	1
Natural	1
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
8 September 2010	Misuse of fire by a minor	205 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
8 September 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	1.5 acres	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	GILL
7 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	ELK
7 September 2006	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
5 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	CUTTEN
5 September 1992	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	BEECHWOOD
4 September 2018	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Northern California District	YOUNG
4 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	MCKAY

Every fire recorded in Humboldt County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Eureka Historic District: 4 occurrences, 4 prospects, 2 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, Stone, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Haw Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Fred Carlson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Haw Quarry	Stone	Occurrence
Manila Dunes Sand Removal	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unknown	Stone	Occurrence
Freshwater Slough	Clay	Occurrence
Freshwater Slough	Clay	Prospect
Loofbourrow	Clay	Occurrence
Thompson Brick Co	Clay	Past Producer
Unnamed Location	Clay	Prospect	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Humboldt County

Storms near this property

8 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Eureka, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 5 flood, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain, 1 tornado. 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
January 2018	Tornado (EF0)	Eureka	$100	A waterspout over Humboldt Bay moved inland across Woodley Island. A boat anemometer measured a wind speed of 54 mph associated with the brief tornado. In addition, a fiber glass case snapped on a dock. The path length was estimated to be 200 feet, and the width was approximately 30 yards.
December 2022	Flood	Eureka	-	Minor flooding across Waterfront Drive near the marina in Eureka.
February 2019	Flood	Eureka	-	Roadway flooding at 1656 Union Street in Eureka; near intersection of Union Street and West Church Avenue.
December 2002	Flood	Eureka	-	Small stream flooding occurred in a wide swath across central Humboldt County.
December 2002	Heavy Rain	Eureka	-	Eureka set an all time daily rainfall record of 6.79 inches. Nearby Honeydew reported 11.24 inches.
December 2002	Flood	Eureka	-	Widespread urban and small stream flooding in Eureka and around Humboldt Bay.
November 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Eureka	-	no account filed
March 1998	Flood	Eureka	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Humboldt County

Maps showing this location

10 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1922 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:62500
1933 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:48000
1942 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:62500 - 3 printings
1949 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1951 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1958 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1959 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1961 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1987 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:100000

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
Odd Fellows Hall	0.1 miles	1978
Sweasey Theater-Loew's State Theater	0.1 miles	2009
D. C. McDonald Building	0.2 miles	1982
U.S. Post Office and Courthouse	0.2 miles	1983
First and F Street Building	0.2 miles	1974
E. Janssen Building	0.2 miles	1973

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 91001523 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Humboldt County	All 52 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.