Shelby County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“The Shelby County Courthouse in Harlan, Iowa, United States, was built in 1892. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource.”
Wikipedia article Shelby County Courthouse (Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 13 National Register listings published here for Shelby County · listed in 1978 · 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. 7th and Court Sts., Harlan, 51537
When was it listed? November 1978
Category. building
Also known as. County Courthouses in Iowa TR (AD); County Courthouses in Iowa TR
City. Harlan city
Architectural style. Richardsonian Romanesque
Architect. Charles E. Bell
National Register reference number. 78001258 - 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

4 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Shelby County Courthouse between 2013 and 2015, burning about 139 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Debris and open burning	1
Arson/incendiarism	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
22 March 2015	Debris and open burning	15 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
22 March 2015	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
18 February 2013	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
19 October 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	120 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Shelby County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Shelby County Courthouse: 1 producer. All of them still produce. 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.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Harlan Pit & Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this property

60 of 75 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Harlan, the town this property stands in, in 75 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 43 thunderstorm wind, 26 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 tornado. 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
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	$70,000	Two walls at the landfill destroyed.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	$60,000	Storage building destroyed.
June 2014	Flash Flood	Harlan	$50,000	Local law enforcement reported that many county roads had water flowing across them in low spots. There was also street flooding reported in the city of Harlan.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	$20,000	Thunderstorm winds estimated at 55 to 60 mph downed a large tree which crushed the roof of a house in the Harlan area. Time was estimated by radar.
May 2024	Funnel Cloud	Harlan	-	The office received a public report of a funnel clouds 3 miles southwest of Harlan, near 900th Street and Juniper Road.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A photo was relayed to the office of a tree that was blown ontop of a house. At the same time, a personal weather station in town recorded a gust of 60 miles per hour. It was likely that the wind gust the blew the tree down on the house was stronger than this.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A 64 miles per hour wind gust was measured on a personal weather station.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A 65 miles per hour wind gust was measured by a personal weather station.
May 2024	Hail	Harlan	-	The office received a report from the public of quarter sized hail on the northeast side of Harlan, Iowa.
May 2024	Hail	Harlan	-	The office received a report from the 911 Call Center of 2 inch hail that had fallen 3 miles north of Harlan, Iowa.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A 72 miles per hour wind gust was measured on a personal weather station 2 miles east of Harlan.
June 2024	Hail	Harlan	-	The office received a report of quarter to golf ball sized hail from the public.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	The office received a public report of a 62 miles per hour wind gust. This wind gust was accompanied by quarter to golf ball sized hail (this has been put as a separate event given the different event type).
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Public reported a semi blown over and part of roof blown off a building.
May 2022	Hail	Harlan	-	Trained spotter reported 1 inch hail.
July 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Trained spotter reported a measured wind gust of 61 mph and several 2-4 diameter tree limbs down.
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Harlan AWOS measured a peak wind gust of 72 mph.
July 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Law enforcement reported trees down.
May 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Trained spotter estimated wind speeds at 71 MPH.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Officials estimated winds were 70 mph or higher.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A storm spotter estimated a 60 mph wind gust in Harlan.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A 52 Knot wind gust was measured at the Harlan Airport AWOS.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	The emergency manager reported that a tree fell on a car along Highway 59 just to the north of Harlan. There were no injuries reported in the vehicle.
June 2014	Hail	Harlan	-	Numerous reports of large hail were received in and just to the south of the city of Harlan. The hail ranged from around quarter size to 3 inches in diameter. The hail was responsible for damage to windows, cars and roofs in and around town.
June 2014	Flash Flood	Harlan	-	Street flooding was widespread in the city of Harlan. Water was also reported across many county roads outside of town as well.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	The bowing thunderstorm segment that began in Omaha raced through the Harlan area bringing a measured wind gust of 75 mph at the Harlan Awos. Tree and building damage was noted in town.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts were measured at 58 mph by the Awos in Harlan at 835 pm CDT, while a spotter estimated a wind gust about that same magnitude in the area at 828 pm.
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	The Awos near Harlan measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 83 mph.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm winds were measured at 65 mph a few miles northwest of Harlan. The winds flattened grain bins in the area and a couple of outbuildings were destroyed. A thousand gallon propane tank was moved around 10 feet by the winds.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A thunderstorm wind gust of 61 mph was measured by the Awos at the Harlan airport. The winds downed several large tree limbs in the area.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A spotter estimated thunderstorm wind gusts around 60 mph in the Harlan area.
July 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph downed a few trees and power lines from west of Harlan into town.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph damaged a farm outbuilding near Harlan.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph blew a large tree onto a home.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts were measured at 60 mph by weather equipment at a Coop observers house 1 mile north of Harlan and at 68 mph by the Awos at the Harlan airport. The strong winds downed some large tree limbs in town.
June 2007	Hail	Harlan	-	The hail was accompanied by 2.2 inches of rain that fell in less than 1 hour.
September 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm winds estimated at around 60 mph knocked a few large tree limbs onto power lines causing some brief power outages in town.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm winds estimated at around 60 mph downed a few small trees and some 3 to 4 inch in diameter tree limbs across town.
September 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Emergency management estimated thunderstorm winds gusted to 60 mph.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A thunderstorm wind gust of 62 mph was recorded by the Harlan AWOS.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts of 70 mph were measured by the AWOS in Harlan. This was from a storm that apparently merged with the storm that developed just to the southwest and produced the tornado that tracked across the Walnut area.
May 2004	Tornado (F0)	Harlan	-	A tornado tracked south of Harlan near F-58 and Juniper Road according to emergency management. The tornado was also seen from near the Walnut area in extreme northern Pottawattamie county. The tornado apparently remained in open country and caused little or no damage.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts over over 60 mph downed trees and power lines from Harlan to Elk Horn.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	A thunderstorm wind gust of 63 mph was recorded by the Harlan AWOS.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts downed large tree limbs and power lines in Harlan.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Cooperative observer measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 71 mph.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Wind equipment measured a 88 mph wind gust which blew a tree onto a road.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	One inch hail and thunderstorm winds over 60 mph did some damage in the Harlan area.
June 2000	Hail	Harlan	-	Reported by a cooperative observer.
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Thunderstorm wind gust estimated at 60 mph by a trained storm spotter.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Large tree limbs downed.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	Roof blown off a building.
July 2019	Hail	Harlan	-	no account filed
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	no account filed
April 2014	Hail	Harlan	-	no account filed
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Harlan	-	no account filed
June 2013	Hail	Harlan	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Harlan	-	no account filed
August 2011	Hail	Harlan	-	no account filed
April 2010	Hail	Harlan	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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

4 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
St. Paul's Episcopal Church	0.1 miles	1978
Harlan Courthouse Square Commercial District	0.1 miles	1994
Floral Hall	0.7 miles	1985
Saint Boniface Catholic Church District	6.0 miles	1991

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78001258 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Shelby County	All 13 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.