Built in 1913 (Romanesque Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
From the record
“The Villisca National Guard Armory is a historic building located in Villisca, Iowa, United States. It was built for use as a National Guard Armory between 1912 and 1913, and was also later used to host community events.”
Wikipedia article Villisca National Guard Armory, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 19 National Register listings published here for Montgomery County · listed in 2015 · category: Building · built in 1913, Romanesque Revival architecture.
National Register reference number. 15000227 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
3 since 2007
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Villisca National Guard Armory
between 2007 and 2011, burning about 25 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
3
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
1 working within 5 miles of Villisca National Guard Armory: 1 past producer.
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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Villisca, the town this property stands in, in 22 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 9 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 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.
This tornado was apparently the decaying part of a cyclic tornado which produced the long-lived and eventually strong tornado which initially touched down 2 miles northeast of Clarinda, trees and small outbuildings sustained the majority of damage from this tornado.
This is a continuation of the Adams County EF-3 tornado as it came out of Page County. This tornado crossed into southern Montgomery County just east of the Montgomery-Page Street and O Avenue intersection. As the tornado continued to the northeast, it tracked through several homesteads snapping tree trunks and destroying multiple farm outbuildings. As the tornado crossed 250th Street, a radio tower was destroyed resulting in EF-2 damage. Further to the northwest at a homestead at the intersection of 240th Street and T Avenue, a home took a direct hit with the majority of its roof blown off in addition to the loss of several exterior walls on the second floor. Trees on the property were uprooted and farm outbuilding were completely destroyed and swept away. This is the strongest damage from this tornado in Montgomery County, rated EF-2 with estimated wind speeds of 130 mph. The tornado then crossed US Highway 71 three-quarters of a mile south of US Highway 34, causing damage to trees and destroying an attached garage to a residence. The walls of the garage were bolted to the foundation and had been completely swept away. The remaining house had significant roof damage, but all the walls remained. Afterwards, the tornado crossed US Highway 34 on the south side of the Hacklebarney Woods County Park. Here trees were snapped, small outbuildings were destroyed and a camping trailer was rolled on its side. The tornado then continued northeast, causing damage to outbuildings and snapping tree trunks as it crossed Vine Avenue. The tornado then crossed into Adams County (see Des Moines National Weather Service StormData) approximately two-thirds of a mile north of 210th Street.
The emergency manager reported that the roof from the local power plant was removed. A chicken plant on the southwest side of town was also destroyed, and there were numerous large tree branches down in town as well.
Rainfall of at least 2 to 3 inches caused minor flooding of the Nodaway River in far southwest Iowa. The river near Clarinda crested at a little over 21.5 feet during the evening of 5/11, flood stage is 19 feet. The flooding affected mainly agricultural lowlands and no damage was reported.
Hail at least up to golf ball-size was accompanied by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph. The winds and hail caused extensive tree, vehicle and home damage in the area.
Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph severely damaged some grain bins in the Villisca area and caused widespread tree damage as well. Some of the fallen trees damaged homes and vehicles and the winds were accompanied by hail at least golf ball-size which also damaged vehicles and homes.
The tornado touched down just southwest of the intersection of 270th and Q Ave. west-southwest of Villisca. Near that point the roof was torn off of an outbuilding and an empty grain bin was blown across the road. A barn had some roof structure damage 2 to 3 miles north of there, near where the tornado apparently lifted.
A microburst produced straight-line winds estimated at 80 to 100 mph. The winds caused significant damage to an apartment building, at least one garage and one camper. Large trees were also blown down.
Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph knocked down numerous large limbs and several trees which blocked a road and downed power lines. Power was knocked out over a large section of town.
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
2 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.
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.
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