BlockFrom the record
One of 13 National Register listings published here for Rio Grande County · listed in 1986 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
US Post Office and Federal Building-Monte Vista Main
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Listed as. US Post Office and Federal Building--Monte Vista Main - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
- Address. Washington and Second Ave., Monte Vista, 81144
- When was it listed? January 1986
- Category. building
- Also known as. US Post Offices in Colorado, 1900-1941, TR
- Census division. Monte Vista
- Architectural style. Beaux-Arts
- National Register reference number. 86000182 - 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
21 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 21 fires within 5 miles of US Post Office and Federal Building-Monte Vista Main between 2003 and 2016, burning about 22 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 | 21 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 June 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 23 May 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 14 May 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 6 April 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 3 April 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 27 April 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 24 April 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 23 April 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 13 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of US Post Office and Federal Building-Monte Vista Main: 8 unknowns, 5 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mathias North Pit & Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk Pits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence | Gravel | |
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence | Gravel |
Storms near this property
6 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Monte Vista, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 4 hail, 1 tornado, 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1995 | Tornado (F0) | Monte Vista | $3,000 | Tornado moved haying machine and knocked over a towed camper on Highway 15. |
| August 2024 | Hail | Monte Vista | - | A trained spotter reported hail of 0.88 inches in diameter. |
| August 2024 | Hail | Monte Vista | - | A public report via CoCoRaHS reported hail of 0.75 inches in diameter. |
| August 2024 | Heavy Rain | Monte Vista | - | A COOP Observer reported 0.87 inches of rain, which fell in a short period of time and was produced by a strong thunderstorm. |
| May 2008 | Hail | Monte Vista | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Monte Vista | - | no account filed |
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 milesOther 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.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Carnegie Library | under 500 feet | 1995 |
 | Monte Vista Library | under 500 feet | 1995 |
 | El Monte Hotel | 0.1 miles | 1990 |
 | First Methodist Episcopal Church | 0.2 miles | 2003 |
 | Monte Vista Downtown Historic District | 0.2 miles | 1991 |
| Central School Auditorium and Gymnasium | 0.3 miles | 1996 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 86000182 in Record Group 79. |
| Rio Grande County | All 13 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.