BlockFrom the record
One of 35 National Register listings published here for Des Moines County · listed in 2025 · category: Building.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Allen, Robert and Catharine (Ripley), House
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2025.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
- Address. 17201 Highway 61, Sperry, 52650
- When was it listed? June 2025
- Category. building
- Township. Franklin township
- National Register reference number. 100011922 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
9 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Allen, Robert and Catharine (Ripley), House between 2006 and 2020, burning about 326 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 180 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 23 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 March 2020 | Debris and open burning | 50 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 March 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 70 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 11 March 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Allen, Robert and Catharine (Ripley), House: 2 producers, 1 past producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite, Limestone, Dimension. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Limestone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Sperry Mine and Mill | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Producer | ||
| Us Gypsum Mine & Plant | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Producer |
Storms near this property
5 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sperry, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 2007 and 2020: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flash flood. 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 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sperry | $25,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew down some 1 to 2 foot diameter trees and some power poles in Sperry, IA around 515 pm June 19. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sperry | - | At a John Deere dealership, a billboard was damaged and signs were twisted. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sperry | - | Wind gusts estimated to be 70 to 80 mph lofted a wood pile and wheel barrow into the air in Sperry, IA at 8:27 pm June 8. |
| June 2007 | Flash Flood | Sperry | - | Water covered Highway 99 south of Mediapolis. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Sperry | - | 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
4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Baptist Church | 2.4 miles | 1977 |
| Flint River Bridge | 3.2 miles | ||
| Prairie Grove School | 5.3 miles | 2019 | |
| Aspen Grove Cemetery Historic District | 7.7 miles | 2022 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 100011922 in Record Group 79. |
| Des Moines County | All 35 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.