Hardin County Courthouse

Built in 1892 (Romanesque Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

From the record

“The Hardin County Courthouse, located in Eldora, Iowa, United States, was built in 1892. The courthouse is the third building to house court functions and county administration.”
Wikipedia article Hardin County Courthouse (Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 34 National Register listings published here for Hardin County · listed in 1981 · category: Building · built in 1892, Romanesque Revival architecture, by Terril Diener Allen.

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. Edgington Ave., Eldora, 50627
When was it listed? July 1981
Category. building
Also known as. County Courthouses in Iowa TR
City. Eldora city
When was it built? 1892
Architectural style. Romanesque Revival architecture
Architect. Terril Diener Allen
National Register reference number. 81000242 - 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

28 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Hardin County Courthouse between 2006 and 2020, burning about 279 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 were 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
Debris and open burning	14
Arson/incendiarism	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Smoking	3
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Railroad operations and maintenance	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
8 July 2012	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
31 July 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 July 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
4 June 2018	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
9 April 2019	Debris and open burning	35 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 April 2013	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 April 2018	Debris and open burning	18 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
7 April 2018	Railroad operations and maintenance	7.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Hardin County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Hardin County Courthouse: 7 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Gifford Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Eldora Pipe and Tile Co.	Clay	Past Producer
Jonker Brick and Tile Co.	Clay	Past Producer
Crosser Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Hardin Aggregates Sand Pit & Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Lloyd Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mccormick Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Wardman Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Hardin County

Storms near this property

55 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Eldora, the town this property stands in, in 55 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 21 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 12 heavy rain, 3 funnel cloud. The reports record 22 injuries. 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 2009	Hail	Eldora	22 hurt, $20,000,000	Large hail brok windows out of a residence and caused considerable crop damage.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$1,000,000	Many Residences in town have broken windows. The Red Cross set up a shelter and treated several injuries. A communications tower was toppled by the high wind.
August 2009	Hail	Eldora	$500,000	Hail of at least golf ball size resulted in broken windows.
May 2013	Flash Flood	Eldora	$200,000	Water over many county roads in the east part of the county.
August 2009	Hail	Eldora	$100,000	no account filed
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$75,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$50,000	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$50,000	no account filed
August 2009	Hail	Eldora	$25,000	Windows broken by hail.
May 2001	Hail	Eldora	$25,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Eldora	$25,000	no account filed
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$25,000	no account filed
March 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$20,000	Law enforcement reported power lines and trees down. This is a delayed report and time estimated by radar.
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$20,000	no account filed
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$10,000	Emergency manager reported trees down in Eldora.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$10,000	no account filed
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$10,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Eldora	$10,000	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Eldora	$10,000	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Eldora	$7,000	no account filed
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$5,000	Large tree down in a yard several feet in diameter.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$5,000	Four foot diameter tree blown down and some power lines.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$5,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Eldora	$5,000	no account filed
September 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	$5,000	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Eldora	$3,000	no account filed
August 2009	Hail	Eldora	$2,000	One inch hail reported in Pine Lake State Park.
April 2014	Hail	Eldora	$2,000	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Eldora	$2,000	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Eldora	$2,000	no account filed
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Delayed report of trees and powerlines down in Eldora, power is out. Relayed by KWWL media.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Iowa DOT report of debris on Highway 175 in Eldora.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Observed 60 mile per hour wind gust on an anemometer.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Damage to multiple hog confinements, with time of occurrence estimated by radar.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Emergency manager reported trees down.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Emergency manager reported minor tree damage with one large limb on a car and power lines. Time estimated via radar.
June 2020	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	CoCoRaHS observer reported a 24 hour rainfall total of 2.63 inches.
June 2020	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Public report of 3.25 inches of rain. Begin time estimated via radar.
September 2019	Hail	Eldora	-	Trained spotter reported nickel sized hail.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Eldora	-	Public reported tree down with winds measured at 61 mph from home weather station.
August 2018	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.16 inches over the last 24 hours.
June 2018	Tornado (EF0)	Eldora	-	Tornado from picture posted on social media. Brief path across agricultural land east southeast of Eldora.
June 2018	Funnel Cloud	Eldora	-	At one time two funnels were observed descending from the cloud deck. Several reports came in about the funnel clouds on social media.
April 2017	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	CoCoRaHS report of 1.00 inches of rain in the past 24 hours and 1.34 inches in the past 48 hours.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Coop observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.38 inches over the last 24 hours.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Trained spotter reported storm total heavy rainfall of 4.10 inches.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 3.50 inches.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 6.75 inches of rain in Eldora over the last 24 hours.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Public reported heavy rainfall of 5.40 inches.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 5.00 inches.
August 2015	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 4.75 inches from last night and today. Report came in via social media.
September 2014	Heavy Rain	Eldora	-	Rainfall of 2.10 inches reported.
April 2014	Hail	Eldora	-	no account filed
June 2013	Funnel Cloud	Eldora	-	no account filed
June 2010	Funnel Cloud	Eldora	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hardin 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
First Congregational Church	0.2 miles	1996
Eldora Downtown Historic District	0.4 miles	2009
Civilian Conservation Corps-Prisoner of War Recreation Hall	0.6 miles	2012
Eldora Public Library	2.9 miles	1983
Steamboat Rock Consolidated Schools Building	3.8 miles	2004
Hardin County Home Historic District	4.1 miles	2010

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 81000242 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Hardin County	All 34 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.