Charles Wolf House

Built in 1895 (Victorian architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

From the record

“Charles Wolf House, also known as the Parkersburg Historical Home, is a historic building located in Parkersburg, Iowa, United States. Wolf was a native of Freeport, Illinois who moved to Parkersburg in 1875 after he, his father and brother-in-law bought the Exchange Bank.”
Wikipedia article Charles Wolf House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Butler County · listed in 1979 · category: Building · built in 1895, Victorian 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. Wolf, Charles, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 401 5th St., Parkersburg, 50665
When was it listed? October 1979
Category. building
Township. Albion township
When was it built? 1895
Architectural style. Victorian architecture
National Register reference number. 79000884 - 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

12 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Charles Wolf House between 2006 and 2020, burning about 146 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	6
Debris and open burning	4
Equipment and vehicle use	2

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
7 May 2014	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
25 April 2013	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
25 April 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
2 April 2013	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
29 March 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	40 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
21 March 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
6 February 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 December 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	15 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Butler County

Mines and quarries near this property

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Charles Wolf House: 2 past producers, 1 unknown. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Limburg Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown

Every working recorded in Butler County

Storms near this property

48 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Parkersburg, the town this property stands in, in 48 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 15 heavy rain, 14 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 6 flood. The reports record 2 deaths. 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 2013	Flood	Parkersburg	1 killed, $500,000	Beaver Creek out of its banks and flooding about a mile long section of Iowa Highway 57 west of Parkersburg. Iowa DOT has already closed that section of the highway with water reaching several houses.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	1 killed, $60,000	Coop observer reported very high winds estimated at over 70 mph. Power reported out in Parkersburg, semi overturned on Highway 57 resulting in one fatality, and numerous tree limbs down on roads. A 3 foot diameter tree also downed in Parkersburg.
June 2013	Flood	Parkersburg	$1,000,000	About 1500 to 2000 feet of railroad tracks were washed out near Parkersburg. Several houses on the west side of town have at least a foot of water in them.
July 1999	Flash Flood	Parkersburg	$350,000	no account filed
June 1997	Flash Flood	Parkersburg	$200,000	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Parkersburg	$75,000	no account filed
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	$50,000	Several large tree limbs down throughout Parkersburg.
May 1998	Hail	Parkersburg	$25,000	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	$20,000	no account filed
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	$15,000	Several reports of trees down around town. Largest was 14 inches in diameter blocking the highway north of town.
April 2001	Hail	Parkersburg	$15,000	no account filed
September 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	$10,000	Law enforcement reported several large tree limbs down throughout Parkersburg, as well as a couple trees reported to have fallen on homes. Time estimated from radar.
April 2008	Flood	Parkersburg	$10,000	Water was reported over the road in Parkersburg.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	$10,000	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Parkersburg	$10,000	no account filed
April 2014	Hail	Parkersburg	$5,000	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Parkersburg	$5,000	no account filed
June 1999	Flood	Parkersburg	$5,000	no account filed
November 2016	Tornado (EF0)	Parkersburg	$3,000	Tornado continued from Grundy County. The weak circulation moved northeast into Butler County and affected a small neighborhood on the east side of Parkersburg. Only weak damage occurred in the form of shingle damage to houses in the vicinity. Video of the tornado shows a diffuse circulation.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	$3,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Parkersburg	$3,000	no account filed
May 1999	Hail	Parkersburg	$1,000	no account filed
May 2024	Flood	Parkersburg	-	Iowa DOT reports IA 57 east bound at IA 14 closed due to water over the road.
May 2024	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Mesonet FW8037 station reported 24 hr heavy rainfall of 3.57 inches.
May 2024	Flood	Parkersburg	-	Sandbagging is in progress.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	-	Broadcast media, KWWL, reported 6 to 8 inch diameter trees down and other items blowing down the street.
August 2018	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 3.77 inches from the multiple rounds of storms.
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Parkersburg	-	Amateur radio reported wind gusts to 70 mph.
June 2017	Hail	Parkersburg	-	Coop observer reported half dollar sized hail. This is a delayed report. Time estimated by radar.
June 2017	Hail	Parkersburg	-	Trained spotter reported quarter sized hail.
June 2017	Hail	Parkersburg	-	Emergency manager reported half dollar sized hail.
September 2016	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.15 inches, over a duration of 36 hours.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.02 inches over the last 24 hours.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 5.40 inches event total with light rain ongoing.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 3.32 inches over the last 24 hours in Parkersburg.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 4.50 inches event total so far.
December 2015	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Coop observer reported heavy rainfall of 3.65 inches over the last 48 hours/storm total so far.
April 2014	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Storm total rainfall for the two days was 2.98 inches.
June 2014	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Rainfall of 3.98 inches since 7:00pm CDT (6:00pm CST).
August 2014	Tornado (EF0)	Parkersburg	-	Track meandered to the northeast with only crop damage noted. This tornado likely merged with another tornado before dissipating. Tornado was found and rated using high resolution satellite imagery.
July 2013	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Rainfall total of 2.5 inches in the past several hours.
June 2013	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Rainfall of 4.64 inches of rain since 0900 CST.
April 2013	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Rainfall of 1.64 inches in the past 24 hours.
June 2013	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Rainfall total for the 24 hours ending at 0800 CST was 5.34 inches.
May 2013	Heavy Rain	Parkersburg	-	Twenty four hour rainfall total of 2.78 inches.
April 2014	Hail	Parkersburg	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Parkersburg	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Parkersburg	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Butler 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

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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Renke and Wubke Renken House	0.3 miles	2014
	Netcott-Pfeiffer House	0.3 miles	2007

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 79000884 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Butler County	All 7 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.