O'Brien County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

From the record

“The O'Brien County Courthouse is located in Primghar, Iowa, United States. 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 O'Brien County Courthouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 2 National Register listings published here for O'Brien 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 Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Fir Ave., Primghar, 51245
When was it listed? July 1981
Category. building
Also known as. County Courthouses in Iowa TR
Township. Summit township
Architectural style. Beaux-Arts
National Register reference number. 81000656 - 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.

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of O'Brien County Courthouse: 11 past producers, 2 producers, 1 unknown. 2 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Bordewick Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Clay County Hwy Dept	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Crosbie Sand and Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Maudlin Const Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Maudlin-Paullina	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Mauer	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Obrien County Hwy Dept	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Schroer Gravel	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in O'Brien County

Storms near this property

29 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Primghar, the town this property stands in, in 29 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 20 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 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
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	$10,000	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including large branches blown down. The winds also blew down power lines.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	$10,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	$5,000	no account filed
August 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	$5,000	no account filed
July 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	-	Highway 59 was closed through the entire town due to so many trees knocked down onto the road by thunderstorm wind gusts.
September 2025	Hail	Primghar	-	Several photos were received of quarter size hail in Primghar.
September 2025	Hail	Primghar	-	Quarter size hail fell for approximately 5 minutes.
July 2024	Tornado (EFU)	Primghar	-	A brief landspout developed just west of Redwing Avenue around one-half mile north of 380th Street. The landspout tracked generally northwest over open farmland before it lifted just south of 370th Street. Visible damage was not indicated via satellite or from reconnaissance of the area. The location was triangulated from landmarks on a drone video.
May 2012	Tornado (EF0)	Primghar	-	A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees blown down.
July 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	Large hail covered the ground.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Primghar	-	Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree damage, including at least one tree uprooted.
April 2026	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
June 2014	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
July 2004	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
October 2002	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
October 2002	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
August 2002	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Primghar	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in O'Brien 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 81000656 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
O'Brien County	All 2 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.
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.