Gobble and Heer-Spurgeons Building

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

From the record

“The Gobble and Heer-Spurgeons Building is a historic building located in Fairfield, Iowa, United States. It housed two long-time businesses and its significance highlights the commercial development of the city's public square.”
Wikipedia article Gobble and Heer-Spurgeons Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 29 National Register listings published here for Jefferson County · listed in 2015 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Gobble and Heer--Spurgeons Building - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 51 E. Broadway, Fairfield, 52556
When was it listed? October 2015
Category. building
City. Fairfield city
Architectural style. Queen Anne style architecture in the United States
National Register reference number. 15000727 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

1 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Gobble and Heer-Spurgeons Building in 2006, burning about 3 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	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
26 March 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Jefferson County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Gobble and Heer-Spurgeons Building: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. 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	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
	Unknown	Clay	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Jefferson County

Storms near this property

60 of 99 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fairfield, the town this property stands in, in 99 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 45 thunderstorm wind, 36 hail, 6 flash flood, 5 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
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$100,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew a tree down onto a house on W Washington Avenue in Fairfield, IA around 340 am CDT August 3.
August 2010	Flash Flood	Fairfield	$100,000	Heavy rains resulted in some flash flooding of parts of Fairfield, IA during the late evening of August 13 and early morning of August 14. The flood water was 1 foot deep across 22nd Street and on W Grimes Avenue.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$60,000	no account filed
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$50,000	Thunderstorm winds estimated to be 70 mph damaged some buildings in the vicinity of 8th St. and W Depot Ave. near the BNSF railroad tracks in Fairfield and ripped the roof off the Dexter-Apache Holdings Inc. building on Grimes Ave. The railroad crossing assembly was also ripped off.
July 2008	Flash Flood	Fairfield	$50,000	Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding of Fairfield, IA during the evening of July 27. Several streets in town were flooded with cars stalled out in the flood waters and people swimming in the streets.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$50,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 75 mph blew the roof off a house at 1103 Kodi Circle in Fairfield, IA around 637 pm July 27.
April 2003	Hail	Fairfield	$50,000	Sheriff car damaged
April 2003	Heavy Rain	Fairfield	$50,000	no account filed
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$25,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew some tree limbs down onto some power lines in Fairfield, IA around 218 am June 22. A power outage was observed on the north side of town.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$15,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew down several trees and power lines across all of Fairfield, IA around 637 pm July 27.
September 2010	Lightning	Fairfield	$10,000	Lightning struck the waste water plant and the Grease Lightning Lift Station in Fairfield, IA during the evening of September 10. Both locations suffered mechanical and electrical malfunctions.
April 2006	Tornado (F1)	Fairfield	$10,000	Rated F1
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$10,000	Numerous limbs down with power out.
May 1996	Lightning	Fairfield	$10,000	no account filed
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$5,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew down phone lines and tree branches in Fairfield, IA at 441 pm CDT June 16.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$5,000	Winds estimated to be 60 mph blew down power lines and tree branches in Fairfield, IA.
September 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$5,000	Branches down along with pea sized hail and water ponding on roads
May 2004	Flash Flood	Fairfield	$5,000	H43 and other roads closed between Cedar and Cresswood Avenues
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$5,000	Numerous tree limbs down
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$2,000	Tree and mailboxes down in Fairfield.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$2,000	Large limbs down along Salina blacktop.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$2,000	Also 1.3 inches of rain
June 2006	Hail	Fairfield	$2,000	no account filed
June 2005	Hail	Fairfield	$1,500	Hail ranging from 0.70 to 1.00 inch
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$1,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew a tree down near the intersection of W Hempstead Avenue and N 4th Street in Fairfield, IA around 340 am CDT August 3. The tree landed on a shed.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$1,000	Strong thunderstorm winds caused a major power outage across the city due to downed powerlines and tree limbs.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	$500	Co-operative observer reported a section of a large tree down.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Power out, with 3 trees blown down.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Fairfield	-	Overnight rainfall total of 3.00 inches.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A tree fell down and damaged a power line at the intersection of Harrison and Main Streets.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Medium size tree limbs blown down by thunderstorm winds.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A spotter estimated 60 to 70 mph winds.
March 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Site wind gust measurement received from AWOS.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A trained spotter reported 2 semis on Highway 34 were blown over.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	The Lee County Emergency Manager reported strong winds on US Highway 34.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A few 2 to 3 inch diameter tree branches were down in town.
May 2014	Hail	Fairfield	-	Nickel to quarter sized hail fell about 2 miles south of Fairfield, IA near the Highway 34 and Highway 1 interchange from 359 pm to 422 pm CDT May 11.
May 2014	Hail	Fairfield	-	Quarter sized hail fell 3 miles southwest of Fairfield, IA at 359 pm CDT May 11.
May 2014	Hail	Fairfield	-	Quarter sized hail fell 2 miles west of Fairfield, IA at 400 pm CDT May 11.
May 2014	Hail	Fairfield	-	Dime to nickel sized hail fell in Fairfield, IA from 354 pm to 404 pm CDT May 11.
May 2014	Hail	Fairfield	-	Quarter sized hail fell in Fairfield, IA at 406 pm CDT May 11.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Trees and branches were reported down all across the city of Fairfield.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A trained spotter reported tree tops snapped off with several branches down.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A trained spotter esimated wind speeds of 60 to 70 mph.
September 2011	Hail	Fairfield	-	Quarter sized hail fell in Fairfield, IA at 155 pm CDT September 3.
September 2011	Hail	Fairfield	-	Quarter sized hail fell in Fairfield, IA around 145 pm CDT September 3.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Utility pole was blown down in the town of Fairfield during the thunderstorm in the 100 block of West Burlington Avenue.
September 2011	Hail	Fairfield	-	Quarter sized hail fell in Fairfield, IA at 145 pm CDT.
July 2009	Flash Flood	Fairfield	-	Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding of West Grimes Avenue in Fairfield, IA during the late afternoon of July 7. The flood waters were about 6 to 12 inches deep.
March 2009	Hail	Fairfield	-	A trained spotter reported hail up to nickel size near Fairfield.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be 60 mph in Fairfield, IA around 145 am June 22.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Winds estimated to be 60 mph blew down some branches in Fairfield, IA. The visibility was near zero due to the heavy rain.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Wind gusts in Fairfield were estimated to be 60 mph.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew down several tree branches throughout Fairfield, IA at 7:50 pm June 8. A power outage affecting about 1500 people was also reported.
July 2008	Hail	Fairfield	-	Nickel-sized hail fell 1 mile northwest of Fairfield, IA at 357 am July 21.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Wind gusts estimated to be 65 mph blew down several branches in Fairfield, IA at 710 pm July 27.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	Some trees were blown down along Highway 1 on the south side of town.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Fairfield	-	A power pole was blown down on the south side of town along Highway 1.
August 2007	Flash Flood	Fairfield	-	Flood waters covered Highway 1 just south of Fairfield, IA.
March 2006	Hail	Fairfield	-	Penny to nickel sized hail

Every storm recorded in Jefferson 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
James A. Beck House	under 500 feet	1978
Former US Post Office Building	under 500 feet	1991
Louden Monorail System in the Auto Repair Shop	under 500 feet	1999
Wilson Building	under 500 feet	1991
R. B. and Lizzie L. Louden House	0.2 miles	1999
Jefferson County Courthouse	0.2 miles	1981

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 15000727 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Jefferson County	All 29 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.