Dallas County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

From the record

“The Dallas County Courthouse in Adel, Iowa, United States was built in 1902. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and is a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource.”
Wikipedia article Dallas County Courthouse (Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Dallas County · listed in 1973 · category: Building.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Town Sq., Adel, 50003
When was it listed? November 1973
Category. building
Also known as. County Courthouses in Iowa TR (AD); County Courthouses in Iowa TR
Township. Adel township
Architect. Proudfoot & Bird
National Register reference number. 73000723 - 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

3 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Dallas County Courthouse between 2006 and 2009, burning about 6 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.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
10 April 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
4 March 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
19 March 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.5 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Dallas County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 12 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 12 workings within 5 miles of Dallas County Courthouse: 8 past producers, 4 producers. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
Clay Pit No. 6	Clay	Producer
Unknown	Clay	Past Producer
Adel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Adel Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Dallas County Pits	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Messerschmidt Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Nissley Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Dallas County

Storms near this property

60 of 102 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Adel, the town this property stands in, in 102 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 37 thunderstorm wind, 26 hail, 16 flood, 14 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	Lightning	Adel	$1,000,000	no account filed
August 2015	Flood	Adel	$250,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 16.35 feet on 1 September 2015 at 8:30 AM CDT. Another entry for this event is in the September 2015 report.
May 2013	Flood	Adel	$200,000	Highway 169 will be closing due to flooding north of Adel.
May 2019	Flood	Adel	$100,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested twice at 16.2 feet on 27 May 2019 at 13:45 UTC and at 15.22 feet on 30 May 2019 at 13:45 UTC.
June 2018	Flood	Adel	$100,000	The Raccoon River at Perry crested at 18.04 feet on 23 June 2018 at 14:15 UTC.
September 2018	Flood	Adel	$100,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 15.50 feet on 8 September at 1645 UTC.
August 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$100,000	Emergency manager reported numerous trees and power lines down throughout Dallas County. Cities affected include Adel, Dallas Center, Redfield, and Dexter. Tree limb also reported on the EM's roof. Time estimated from when storm hit Adel.
June 2015	Flood	Adel	$100,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 15.10 feet at 12:30 PM CST on 13 June.
June 2015	Flood	Adel	$100,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 19.40 feet at 4:00 PM CST on 26 June.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$75,000	Two 9 inch tree limbs down. Virtually every street has some tree damage.
October 2018	Flood	Adel	$50,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 17.86 ft on 12 October 2018 at 05:45 UTC.
September 2015	Flood	Adel	$50,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested a second time this month at 15.68 feet on 07 September 2015 at 4:30 PM CDT.
December 2015	Flood	Adel	$50,000	The North Raccoon River crested at 20.78 feet on 17 December 2015 at 21:20 UTC.
August 2010	Flash Flood	Adel	$50,000	Manhole covers blown off and cars stalled in several intersections.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$50,000	Large tree limbs blown onto nearby roads. Some trees were uprooted.
June 2008	Flood	Adel	$50,000	The Raccoon River was flooding over Highway 169.
May 2016	Flood	Adel	$25,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at midnight CDT on 4 May 2016 at 16.74 feet.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$25,000	Damage to a garage.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$25,000	Numerous 6 to 8 inch diameter tree limbs were down in Adel. Winds were estimated to be 60 to 65 MPH. Power was out in Redfield.
March 2007	Flash Flood	Adel	$25,000	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Adel	$25,000	no account filed
February 2016	Flood	Adel	$20,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 16.01 feet on 23 February 2016 at 0845 UTC.
June 2015	Flash Flood	Adel	$20,000	County Sheriff reported flash flooding in the area.
June 2000	Hail	Adel	$20,000	no account filed
April 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$20,000	no account filed
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$15,000	Trees reported down onto Highway 169 and 15th Street in Adel.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$15,000	no account filed
May 2017	Flood	Adel	$10,000	The North Raccoon River at Perry crested at 15.61 feet on 24 May 2017 at 00:45 UTC.
November 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$10,000	A report of trees down near Adel.
June 2008	Flash Flood	Adel	$10,000	Panther Creek was bank full with roads in the area flooding.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$10,000	no account filed
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$10,000	no account filed
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	Fire department reported minor damage to trees and power transformers.
August 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	A large tree was downed on a power line.
August 2012	Hail	Adel	$5,000	Dallas County Emergency Management reported quarter to half dollar size hail falling in the Adel area along with 40 to 50 MPH winds.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	Six inch tree limbs down in the town of Adel.
May 2013	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
September 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
April 1998	Hail	Adel	$5,000	no account filed
May 2013	Tornado (EF0)	Adel	$4,000	Weak tornado with a very broad circulation. Track was intermittent.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$3,000	Tree branches up to 10 inches in diameter were reported down.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$3,000	Tree damage was reported.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$2,000	Eight to 10 inch tree blown down with additional smaller limbs down.
May 2004	Tornado (F1)	Adel	$2,000	Tornado tracked through open fields for the most part. It also lifted from time to time.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$2,000	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Adel	$2,000	no account filed
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$2,000	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$2,000	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Adel	$2,000	no account filed
April 1999	Hail	Adel	$2,000	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Dallas 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

5 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
Adel Public Square Historic District	under 500 feet	2009
Adel Bridge	0.3 miles	2002
Dallas County Courthouse (Boundary Increase)	0.4 miles	1979
St. Boniface Catholic Church	7.0 miles	2024
Robert William Andrew Feller Farmstead	7.5 miles	1999

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 73000723 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Dallas County	All 19 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.