Samuel Nichols House

Built in 1870 (vernacular architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“Samuel Nichols House is a historic residence located in rural Muscatine County, Iowa, United States, near the town of Nichols. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.”
Wikipedia article Samuel Nichols House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 40 National Register listings published here for Muscatine County · listed in 1978 · category: Building · built in 1870, vernacular architecture.

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.
Listed as. Nichols, Samuel, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. E of Nichols off IA 22, Nichols, 52766
When was it listed? March 1978
Category. building
Township. Pike township
When was it built? 1870
Architectural style. vernacular architecture
National Register reference number. 78001247 - 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

1 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Samuel Nichols House in 2020, burning about 11 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
6 October 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	11 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Muscatine County

Storms near this property

18 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Nichols, the town this property stands in, in 18 storm reports between 2002 and 2024: 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 tornado, 2 flash flood. The reports record 1 death and 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
April 2006	Tornado (F1)	Nichols	1 killed, 1 hurt, $120,000	Entered from Johnson County
April 2006	Tornado (F1)	Nichols	$80,000	Entered from Johnson County
June 2010	Flash Flood	Nichols	$25,000	Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding in Muscatine, IA and Nichols, IA during the late afternoon and evening of June 23. Some vehicles were stalled out in over a foot of flood water in downtown Muscatine. In Nichols, some streets were temporarily closed due to flooding.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	$10,000	Semi blown over on highway 70 at 200th Street
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	$5,000	Wind gusts estimated to be 85 mph blew down several 20 inch diameter tree limbs in Nichols, IA around 515 pm June 19. A fence was also blown away.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Trees reported blown down, and power is out on west side of Nichols, Iowa.
May 2024	Tornado (EF1)	Nichols	-	A tornado developed south of Lone Tree in Johnson County, as evidenced by a public photo. The tornado then tracked rapidly northeast, and caused damage to outbuildings at a farm west of Nichols along Highway 22. The tornado then continue through open farm land before lifting between West Liberty and Atalissa. The tornado was rated EF-1 with max winds around 90 mph.
May 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Wind gusts estimated between 50 to 60 mph from the thunderstorm.
August 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Widespread straight-line winds that produced extensive damage were reported throughout Muscatine County, associated with a derecho. These winds lasted around an hour in total at any one location, even though the initial line of storms moved out quickly. Damaging straight-line winds continued and were associated with the rear inflow jet. Maximum wind speeds were estimated to be 60 to 70 MPH for much of the county with 80 MPH or higher over the northern half. These estimates were determined based off damage reports and photos submitted through social media. The duration of strong winds caused extensive damage to most trees, powerlines, crops, and structures in their path. The peak wind gust measured at the Muscatine Airport was 58 MPH before power was lost. The widespread damage also resulted in long duration power outages.
September 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Law enforcement reported large trees down, blocking the road.
June 2012	Hail	Nichols	-	Quarter sized hail fell about 4 miles east northeast of Nichols, IA at 1033 pm CDT June 29.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Wind gusts estimated to be 75 mph were observed about 3 miles south of Nichols, IA at 8:28 pm June 8.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph were observed in Nichols, IA at 8:31 pm June 8.
June 2007	Flash Flood	Nichols	-	Water covered several roads including Highway 6 in western portions of Muscatine County, closing them. Water also topped part of the levy between Nichols and West Liberty.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Nichols	-	Power lines and tree limbs blown down.
April 2023	Hail	Nichols	-	no account filed
April 2023	Hail	Nichols	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Nichols	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Muscatine 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
Nichols, Benjamin F. and Susan M. (Jenkins), House	1.0 miles	2023
Ijem Avenue Commercial Historic District	1.3 miles	2020
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	1.3 miles	2022
Big Slough Creek Bridge	3.4 miles	1998
West Liberty Fairgrounds Historic District	6.1 miles	2015
West Liberty Commercial Historic District	6.4 miles	2002

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78001247 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Muscatine County	All 40 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.
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.