Adams County Courthouse

Built in 1906 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

From the record

“The Adams County Courthouse in Brighton, Colorado, located at 22 S 4th Ave., was built in 1906, and housed the judicial functions of Adams County until the 1970s when the legislation moved out and the building became the Brighton City Hall. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.”
Wikipedia article Adams County Courthouse (Colorado), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 18 National Register listings published here for Adams County · listed in 2006 · category: Building · built in 1906, Neoclassical architecture.

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. 22 S 4th Ave., Brighton, 80601
When was it listed? October 2006
Category. building
Census division. Brighton
When was it built? 1906
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 06000916 - 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

560 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 560 fires within 5 miles of Adams County Courthouse between 2010 and 2020, burning about 508 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 12 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	437
Debris and open burning	27
Smoking	23
Recreation and ceremony	18
Equipment and vehicle use	17
Arson/incendiarism	12
Fireworks	10
Natural	5
Misuse of fire by a minor	5
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Railroad operations and maintenance	3

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 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Greater Brighton Fire Protection District	N/A
8 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Greater Brighton Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
7 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	BRIGHTON
6 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Greater Brighton Fire Protection District	N/A
6 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	N/A
6 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	N/A
6 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Greater Brighton Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
6 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	not named

Every fire recorded in Adams County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 26 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 26 workings within 5 miles of Adams County Courthouse: 9 occurrences, 8 producers, 6 unknowns, 3 past producers. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Unknown	Clay	Occurrence
Unknown	Clay	Occurrence
Unknown	Clay	Occurrence
Unknown	Clay	Producer
Unknown	Clay	Producer
Unknown	Clay	Producer
Unknown	Clay	Occurrence
Unknown	Clay	Producer
Adams Aggregate Inc Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Adams Aggregate Inc Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Adams County

Storms near this property

60 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Brighton, the town this property stands in, in 60 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 36 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 9 tornado, 4 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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
September 2011	Lightning	Brighton	1 hurt	no account filed
August 2008	Lightning	Brighton	$20,000	no account filed
September 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	$5,000	no account filed
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	Numerous trees in town were damaged.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	Intense winds snapped tree limbs up to 6 inches in diameter.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	Intense winds downed a fence and snapped tree branches up to 3 inches in diameter.
September 2013	Flash Flood	Brighton	-	Continuous heavy rainfall produced flash flooding. Floodwaters were reportedly breaking through basement windows west of Brighton.
July 2005	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A tornado touched down briefly but did no damage.
October 2004	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
October 2004	Tornado (F1)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down and caused extensive damage to a recreational vehicle. A barn was also severely damaged. The roof of the barn was thrown 100 feet while the remaining structure was torn from its foundation. Four llamas in the barn were injured when it collapsed.
October 2004	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
October 2004	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
May 2003	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A tornado touched down briefly but did no damage.
June 2001	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
June 2001	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down but did no damage.
July 2000	Tornado (F0)	Brighton	-	A small tornado touched down briefly but did no damage.
June 1999	Lightning	Brighton	-	Lightning sparked an oil tank fire near Brighton.
July 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	Dry microburst winds estimated to 70 mph (61 kts) snapped branches 4 inches in diameter. In addition, some road signs in Brighton were twisted and blown down.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	Damaging thunderstorm winds associated with a wet microburst ripped the roof off a barn, causing the east side of the structure to collapse. The roof of a nearby utility shed was also ripped off and blown 60 feet away.
May 2023	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2021	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2021	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2020	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2018	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2011	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
August 2004	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
August 2004	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2004	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 2002	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 1996	Lightning	Brighton	-	no account filed
July 1996	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	no account filed
May 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Brighton	-	no account filed
June 1994	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
August 1994	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
September 1993	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
September 1993	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed
September 1993	Hail	Brighton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Adams County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 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
Colorado Sanitary Canning Factory	0.3 miles	2016
Brighton High School	0.3 miles	1998
Bromley Farm-Koizuma Hishinuma Farm	1.3 miles	2007

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 06000916 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Adams County	All 18 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.