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Photograph of Taylor County Courthouse
Photograph by JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Taylor County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

From the record

“The Taylor County Courthouse in Bedford, Iowa, United States, was built in 1892. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource.”

Wikipedia article Taylor County Courthouse (Iowa), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Taylor County · listed in 1981 · 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. Court Ave., Bedford, 50833
  • When was it listed? July 1981
  • Category. building
  • Also known as. County Courthouses in Iowa TR
  • Township. Bedford township
  • Architectural style. Romanesque Revival architecture
  • National Register reference number. 81000271 - 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

5 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Taylor County Courthouse between 2006 and 2013, burning about 46 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/undetermined4
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
21 April 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
29 March 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined40 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
12 February 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
14 January 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Taylor 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 Taylor County Courthouse: 2 producers, 1 past producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: 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.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bedford QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Nash Quarry and MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
One Hundred and Two QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Taylor County

Storms near this property

60 of 116 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bedford, the town this property stands in, in 116 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 39 thunderstorm wind, 36 hail, 31 heavy rain, 4 tornado. The reports record 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 1995Thunderstorm WindBedford1 hurt, $9,000no account filed
April 1999Tornado (F1)Bedford$100,000very intermittent track
August 2000Thunderstorm WindBedford$75,000no account filed
August 2000Thunderstorm WindBedford$75,000no account filed
July 2015Flash FloodBedford$50,000Law Enforcement reported a pond in town has completely filled and is overflowing and running across the road. Depth of the water is unknown.
September 2010HailBedford$50,000Hail ranged from one half inch to two and one half inches in diameter.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindBedford$50,000no account filed
April 2002HailBedford$50,000no account filed
May 1999Tornado (F1)Bedford$50,000no account filed
May 1996FloodBedford$50,000no account filed
April 1994Thunderstorm WindBedford$50,000no account filed
September 1993HailBedford$50,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindBedford$30,000Taylor County Emergency Manager relayed roof damage occurred south of Highway 2 on Highland Ave.
April 2002HailBedford$30,000no account filed
July 1999FloodBedford$30,000no account filed
March 1996Thunderstorm WindBedford$30,000no account filed
June 2008Flash FloodBedford$25,000Rainfall of 1.75 inches was reported in less than an hour, causing extensive street flooding in Bedford. More than 6 inches of water was flowing through streets through the crossing of Highway 148.
July 2002HailBedford$25,000no account filed
May 2004HailBedford$20,000no account filed
August 2000Thunderstorm WindBedford$20,000no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindBedford$15,000no account filed
May 2004HailBedford$15,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindBedford$10,000Several tree limbs and power lines were downed throughout the town of Bedford.
August 2011HailBedford$10,000no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindBedford$10,000no account filed
July 2002HailBedford$10,000no account filed
June 1998HailBedford$10,000no account filed
April 2024Tornado (EF0)Bedford$5,000This was a brief tornado which occurred west of Bedford moving due north just west of Highway 2 in Taylor County. This tornado did some low end damage to outbuildings before dissipating.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000High winds downed large tree branches in Bedford.
September 2010HailBedford$5,000Reported on Highway 2.
August 2009Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000Tree limbs and power lines were blown down in Bedford.
August 2011HailBedford$5,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
August 2003Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
June 2002Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
June 2002HailBedford$5,000no account filed
July 2002HailBedford$5,000no account filed
July 2002HailBedford$5,000no account filed
October 2002Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
July 2001Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
April 1994Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
April 1994Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
September 1993Thunderstorm WindBedford$5,000no account filed
April 2010Thunderstorm WindBedford$3,000no account filed
June 2006HailBedford$3,000no account filed
May 2006HailBedford$3,000no account filed
May 2004HailBedford$3,000no account filed
May 1996HailBedford$3,000no account filed
April 2011HailBedford$2,000no account filed
July 2011Thunderstorm WindBedford$2,000no account filed
May 2010Thunderstorm WindBedford$2,000no account filed
March 2006Thunderstorm WindBedford$2,000no account filed
May 2004HailBedford$2,000no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindBedford$2,000no account filed
July 2000LightningBedford$2,000no account filed
April 1999Thunderstorm WindBedford$2,000no account filed
July 2025Thunderstorm WindBedford$1,000Social media report with top of a large tree snapped. Time estimated from radar.

Every storm recorded in Taylor 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Bedford Commercial Historic Districtunder 500 feet2002
Bedford Houseunder 500 feet1977
Bedford Oil Company Station0.1 miles1999
Lenox Round Barn0.9 miles1999
Bedford Public Library4.4 miles1983

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 81000271 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Taylor CountyAll 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.