Bowles House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“The Bowles House in Westminster, Colorado is a brick Italianate house built in 1871 by Edward Bruce Bowles and his wife Mahala Elizabeth Longan. Bowles is largely credited for bringing the Colorado & Southern Railroad to the present-day Westminster area.”
Wikipedia article Bowles House (Westminster, Colorado), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 18 National Register listings published here for Adams County · listed in 1988 · category: Building.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 3924 W. 72nd Ave., Westminster, 80030
When was it listed? November 1988
Category. building
Census division. West Adams
Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 88002308 - 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

1,178 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1,178 fires within 5 miles of Bowles House between 1992 and 2020, burning about 195 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 30 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	1020
Smoking	35
Arson/incendiarism	30
Recreation and ceremony	22
Equipment and vehicle use	21
Fireworks	19
Debris and open burning	12
Misuse of fire by a minor	7
Power generation/transmission/distribution	5
Natural	4
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 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	N/A
9 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	ARVADA
9 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	WESTMINSTER
9 September 2010	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	not named
9 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	not named
8 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Arvada Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
7 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	North Metro Fire Rescue District	N/A
6 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	WESTMINSTER

Every fire recorded in Adams County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 68 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 68 workings within 5 miles of Bowles House: 43 past producers, 10 occurrences, 9 unknowns, 6 producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Clay, Fire Clay (Refractory). 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
Denver Brick & Pipe Co.	Clay	Producer
Unknown	Fire Clay (Refractory)	Producer
Unknown	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Occurrence	Sedimentary
Unknown	Gold, Silver, Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer	Placer
Unknown	Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver	Occurrence
Cooley Gravel Co. Pits	Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold	Past Producer	1951, 1964
Gordon Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold	Past Producer	Gold, Sand and Gravel
Swadley Placers	Gold	Past Producer	1858, 1859
Asphalt Paving Co Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Asphalt Paving Co Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Adams County

Storms near this property

20 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Westminster, the town this property stands in, in 20 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 8 hail, 5 lightning, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood. The reports record 2 deaths. 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 2006	Lightning	Westminster	1 killed	A man on a motorcycle was struck by lightning and killed. The motorcyclist was struck on U.S. Highway 36 between Church Ranch Blvd. and Sheridan Blvd. After the man was struck, he crashed into the center median. The lightning left a crater in the highway that was approximately 18 inches long, 8 inches wide and 4 inches deep.
May 2001	Lightning	Westminster	1 killed	A 19-yr old man was killed by lightning as he was walking along the shoulder of U.S. Highway 36 during a thunderstorm.
August 2010	Lightning	Westminster	$30,000	Lightning struck a residence and sparked a fire. The fire migrated in the space between the first and second floor.
August 2010	Lightning	Westminster	$20,000	Lightning sparked a fire at a townhome. The fire caused damage to the exterior roof and severe damage to the trusses in the attic.
July 1997	Flood	Westminster	$20,000	Heavy rain caused flooding to occur in the Rancho Pecos apartment building. Several residents had to be evacuated from their apartments.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Westminster	$1,000	Report via social media. Measured a 50 mph gust using a handheld anemometer. A few trees down along with numerous 1-3 inch diameter branches.
May 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Westminster	$500	no account filed
June 2024	Hail	Westminster	-	The report was from mping.
August 2016	Flash Flood	Westminster	-	A wet microburst produced very heavy rain and hail in Westminster.
May 2005	Lightning	Westminster	-	Lightning reportedly struck at least 20 homes in Westminster. Most of the damage however was minor.
June 1995	Tornado (F0)	Westminster	-	A very brief tornado, which was momentarily noticed by a dust and debris cloud, was responsible for damaging the roof of a house.
May 2017	Hail	Westminster	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Westminster	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Westminster	-	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Westminster	-	no account filed
September 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Westminster	-	no account filed
August 1997	Flood	Westminster	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Westminster	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Westminster	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Westminster	-	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

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
Harris Park School	0.3 miles	1990
Union High School	0.3 miles	2000
William J. Gregory House	1.2 miles	1996
Westminster University	1.4 miles	1979
Deza Estates	3.9 miles	2023
Riverside Cemetery	4.8 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88002308 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.