Melvin School

Built in 1922. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

From the record

“The Melvin School is a former homestead located at 4950 S. It was moved to its current site from its original location, 3 miles away.”
Wikipedia article Melvin School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 26 National Register listings published here for Arapahoe County · listed in 1984 · category: Building · built in 1922.

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. 4950 S. Laredo St., Aurora, 80015
When was it listed? January 1984
Category. building
Also known as. Rural School Buildings in Colorado MPS
Census division. South Aurora
When was it built? 1922
National Register reference number. 84000790 - 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

841 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 841 fires within 5 miles of Melvin School between 1994 and 2020, burning about 286 acres in total. 16 started naturally. 42 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	653
Smoking	55
Arson/incendiarism	42
Equipment and vehicle use	26
Fireworks	20
Natural	16
Recreation and ceremony	12
Misuse of fire by a minor	8
Debris and open burning	8
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
9 September 2017	Smoking	under an acre	South Metro Fire Rescue	UNKNOWN
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Cunningham Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Aurora Fire Department	UNKNOWN
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Aurora Fire Department	UNKNOWN
8 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Aurora Fire Department	UNKNOWN
8 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	not named
8 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	not named
7 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	not named

Every fire recorded in Arapahoe County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Melvin School: 9 unknowns, 6 occurrences, 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold. 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
Cherry Creek Placers	Gold	Past Producer	Placer
Cherry Creek Placers	Gold	Unknown
Cherry Creek Sand Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Arapahoe 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

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
Seventeen Mile House	4.1 miles	1983
Gully Homestead	6.0 miles	1986
DeLaney Barn	6.0 miles	1989
William Smith House	7.0 miles	1985
Hopkins Farm	7.2 miles	2007
South Dahlia Lane	7.6 miles	2025

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 84000790 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Arapahoe County	All 26 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.