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Photograph of Valley Junction-West Des Moines City Hall and Engine House
Photograph by Goddesshanna, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Valley Junction-West Des Moines City Hall and Engine House

Built in 1901. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

From the record

“The Valley Junction-West Des Moines City Hall and Engine House is a historic building located in West Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Valley Junction was incorporated in 1893, and it was named for the junction of three lines of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad where it was located.”

Wikipedia article Valley Junction-West Des Moines City Hall and Engine House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 208 National Register listings published here for Polk County · listed in 1983 · category: Building · built in 1901.

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. 137 5th St., West Des Moines, 50265
  • When was it listed? February 1983
  • Category. building
  • Township. Walnut township
  • When was it built? 1901
  • National Register reference number. 83000400 - 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 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Valley Junction-West Des Moines City Hall and Engine House between 2006 and 2011, burning about 7 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

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
4 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resources129 COTTAGE LANE,LAKE PONDEROSA, IA
24 November 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
13 January 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Polk County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Valley Junction-West Des Moines City Hall and Engine House: 5 producers, 2 past producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Marquette Cement PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Penn-Dixie Cement PlantStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
West Des Moines Plant #8Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Commerce Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
I-35 and Army Post Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
West Des Moines Sand PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Polk County

Storms near this property

60 of 72 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Des Moines, the town this property stands in, in 72 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 34 hail, 24 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 3 heavy rain. The reports record 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2001Tornado (F1)West Des Moines1 hurt, $500,000Tornado touched down on southwest edge of West Des Moines at the Glen Oaks Golf Club and swept into an apartment complex. Track was intermittent following the destruction of a garage unit there.
August 2004LightningWest Des Moines1 hurtno account filed
June 2001HailWest Des Moines$9,500,000no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$2,000,000no account filed
June 2001HailWest Des Moines$250,000no account filed
June 2001HailWest Des Moines$200,000no account filed
June 2018Flash FloodWest Des Moines$100,000Public reported that 63rd and Grand near West Des Moines was underwater. Water rescues were performed at this location as well.
April 2012Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$100,000Most of the roof torn away on a commercial building.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$100,000no account filed
August 2010Flash FloodWest Des Moines$75,000Public Works Department in Des Moines and West Des Moines reports water over the road at Grand and 61st.
May 2014HailWest Des Moines$75,000no account filed
May 2004Flash FloodWest Des Moines$75,000no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$75,000no account filed
May 2007FloodWest Des Moines$50,000no account filed
May 2004Flash FloodWest Des Moines$50,000no account filed
April 2001HailWest Des Moines$50,000no account filed
June 2001HailWest Des Moines$50,000no account filed
April 1994HailWest Des Moines$50,000no account filed
May 2007FloodWest Des Moines$25,000no account filed
July 2000Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$25,000no account filed
July 1997Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$20,000no account filed
April 2004LightningWest Des Moines$15,000no account filed
March 2007HailWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
May 2004HailWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
May 2004HailWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
May 2004HailWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
September 2001Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
June 2000Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$10,000no account filed
May 2014HailWest Des Moines$5,000Located at the southeast corner of 63rd and Grand.
March 2012Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$5,000Power poles down along with small tree limbs.
March 2007HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
March 2007HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
June 2007Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
May 2004HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
May 2004HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
May 2004HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
April 2003HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
April 2003HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
May 2003HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
June 1998HailWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
July 1995Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$5,000no account filed
April 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$3,000no account filed
May 2001HailWest Des Moines$3,000no account filed
April 2006HailWest Des Moines$2,000no account filed
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$2,000no account filed
July 2006Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$2,000no account filed
June 2004Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$2,000no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$2,000no account filed
July 1995HailWest Des Moines$2,000no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines$1,000no account filed
July 1997HailWest Des Moines$1,000no account filed
April 2022HailWest Des Moines-A Mercy Hospital ambulance reported penny to nickel sized hail.
August 2022HailWest Des Moines-Delayed report of egg sized hail in West Des Moines. Time estimated by radar.
June 2021HailWest Des Moines-Report via mping of penny sized hail.
December 2021Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines-Spotter reported wind gusts between 612 pm and 625 pm, estimated between 60 and 70 pm. Also reported large branches down, but exact size unknown.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines-Public report of damage on Grand between 8th st and 4th st including large trees down, power lines down, and traffic signal blown down.
July 2020HailWest Des Moines-A trained spotter reported penny sized hail.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines-Public report via social media of a tree down in the road. Time estimated via radar.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindWest Des Moines-Broadcast media relayed report of a large tree down near 63rd street and Railroad Avenue that also brought down a power line with it. Time estimated via radar.

Every storm recorded in Polk 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows) Valley Junction Lodge Hall No. 604under 500 feet2017
Valley Junction Commercial Historic District0.2 miles2017
Valley Auto Co.-Morgan Auto Co. Garage0.2 miles2021
U.S. Post Office0.3 miles1974
Val-Air Ballroom1.0 miles2022
Jordan House1.6 miles1973

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 83000400 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Polk CountyAll 208 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.