Odd Fellows Block

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

From the record

“Odd Fellows Block is a historic building located in Afton, Iowa, United States. The historical significance of this two-story brick commercial building is its use of the Italianate style for a commercial building.”
Wikipedia article Odd Fellows Block (Afton, Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 6 National Register listings published here for Union County · listed in 2014 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · 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. 175 E. Kansas St., Afton, 50830
When was it listed? January 2014
Category. building
Township. Union township
National Register reference number. 13001079 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

29 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Odd Fellows Block between 2007 and 2020, burning about 334 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	17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	10
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Smoking	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
11 August 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 July 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
4 July 2012	Smoking	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 June 2012	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
14 May 2012	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 May 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
22 April 2014	Debris and open burning	15 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
2 April 2013	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Union County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Odd Fellows Block: 3 past producers. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Afton Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Afton-Lacena Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Union County

Storms near this property

47 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Afton, the town this property stands in, in 47 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 14 hail, 6 heavy rain, 4 tornado. 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
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	1 hurt, $2,000	A tree was blown over and injured one person. He received a punctured lung and head injuries.
May 2007	Hail	Afton	$750,000	no account filed
April 2024	Tornado (EF2)	Afton	$500,000	This tornado formed between the BNSF railroad and Highway 34 west of Afton and took a track very similar to a tornado which occurred earlier in the hour. It produced EF2 damage to several house on either side of Highway 34 as it travelled to the northeast. The tornado crossed Three Mile Lake just upstream of the dam and impacted a structure in the Wildlife Management Building area just a few hundred yards from the one impacted in the earlier tornado. This tornado then moved northeast through rural Union County impacting another farmstead producing EF2 damage. The tornado dissipated in the north central portion of Union County near the intersection of Pheasant Avenue and 130th Street.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$500,000	A two-story brick building with wooden roof and shingles was damaged. Roof and shingles were blown off. A 4 foot diameter tree was uprooted in the city park and 3 air handling units were blown off of the East Union High School in Afton. Tin was blown off the feed mill.
April 2001	Tornado (F2)	Afton	$150,000	Tornado moved from Ringgold County, across Union County, into Clarke County.
April 2024	Tornado (EF2)	Afton	$100,000	This tornado developed west of Afton and quickly moved northeast. It crossed the BNSF railroad and Highway 34 before passing near the Three Mile Lake Dam. This tornado produced EF2 at one of the Wildlife Management Center's buildings before proceeding into rural areas of northern Union county. There was limited damage in this rolling terrain area with mostly tree damage although a few farmsteads were impacted with EF0 or EF1 damage. The tornado then crossed into Madison County northwest of Lorimor.
July 2015	Flood	Afton	$100,000	Flooding continued on over a dozen roads in the southeastern quarter of the county due to the 3 to 5 inches of rain that had fallen. Numerous roads near the Thayer area had been impacted.
May 2007	Hail	Afton	$100,000	no account filed
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$25,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$20,000	no account filed
May 2013	Flash Flood	Afton	$10,000	The Union County Sherriff's office reported 3 feet of water mixed with hail and cornstalks running over 205th St. at Lark St. west of Afton. Street flooding was reported in Afton.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$10,000	Wind reported by the Afton News.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$10,000	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$10,000	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$10,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$10,000	no account filed
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$5,000	KCCI reported that multiple tree branches were down around town and that the town was without power at the time of the report.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$5,000	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Afton	$5,000	no account filed
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$3,000	Report from an RWIS site.
April 2014	Hail	Afton	$3,000	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$3,000	no account filed
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$2,000	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Afton	$2,000	no account filed
June 2005	Hail	Afton	$2,000	no account filed
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	$2,000	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Afton	$1,000	no account filed
April 2009	Hail	Afton	$1,000	no account filed
May 1997	Hail	Afton	$1,000	no account filed
April 2025	Hail	Afton	-	Spotter reported dime to quarter sized hail.
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	-	Social media report of 4 inch diameter tree limb snapped. Time estimated from radar.
September 2025	Hail	Afton	-	Trained spotter reported nickel sized hail on Highway 34 east of Creston.
April 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	-	Metal shed damaged and 3 to 4 inch diameter trees down 2.5 miles south of Afton.
June 2022	Hail	Afton	-	Nickel sized hail accompanied by strong winds.
June 2017	Funnel Cloud	Afton	-	Trained spotter reported a funnel cloud.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Afton	-	Home weather station accumulation since 3:30am.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Afton	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 4.75 inches over the last 24 hours.
September 2014	Heavy Rain	Afton	-	Rainfall of 3.66 inches for the afternoon and evening.
September 2014	Heavy Rain	Afton	-	Rainfall of 6.10 inches through the afternoon and evening.
September 2014	Heavy Rain	Afton	-	Rainfall for the past 24 hours was 8.8 inches.
May 2013	Heavy Rain	Afton	-	The public reported 4.5 inches of rain in the past two hours.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Afton	-	Measured by a KCCI schoolnet site.
June 2008	Tornado (EF1)	Afton	-	Report relayed by KCCI television. Also from several storm chasers and spotters. This tornado crossed from Union County into Clarke County.
June 2008	Funnel Cloud	Afton	-	A rain wrapped funnel cloud was observed 3 miles northwest of Highway 169 and Highway 34.
June 2008	Funnel Cloud	Afton	-	A spotter located at the intersection of Highway 169 and Highway 34 reported a rain wrapped funnel cloud.
April 2025	Hail	Afton	-	no account filed
May 2013	Hail	Afton	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Union 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 13001079 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Union County	All 6 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.