Albia Square and Central Commercial Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

From the record

“The Albia Square and Central Commercial Historic District encompasses most of the central business district of Albia, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1985.”
Wikipedia article Albia Square and Central Commercial Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Monroe County · listed in 1985 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Roughly bounded by the alley of S. and N. Clinton, E. and W. A Ave., N. and S. 2nd St., and E. and W. 2nd Ave., Albia, 52531
When was it listed? January 1985
Category. district
Township. Troy township
National Register reference number. 85000007 - 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

1 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Albia Square and Central Commercial Historic District in 2009, burning under an acre 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	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
14 April 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Monroe County

Storms near this property

60 of 82 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Albia, the town this property stands in, in 82 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 31 thunderstorm wind, 22 hail, 17 heavy rain, 7 flash flood. 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
April 2007	Flood	Albia	$250,000	no account filed
June 2015	Tornado (EF2)	Albia	$125,000	This tornado developed and intensified quickly just to the west of Albia where EF-2 damage occurred. The tornado dissipated as it swept into the SW corner of Albia, damaging several homes and businesses.
June 2010	Flash Flood	Albia	$100,000	Major street flooding in Albia as Highway 5 was impassable due to water running under the railroad overpass in the northern part of town.
June 2010	Flash Flood	Albia	$100,000	Numerous gravel roads were covered with water and washed out across the southern two thirds of Monroe County. Rainfall since 0700 CST was 2.98 inches.
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$100,000	A Burlington Northern train had 21 cars blown off the tracks.
June 2000	Flash Flood	Albia	$100,000	no account filed
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$75,000	Numerous small branches and limbs down along with a few portions of larger trees with some of the trees blocking portions of the road. Another tree fell onto a vehicle at the Chinese restaurant on east Benton.
June 2008	Hail	Albia	$75,000	Several reports of golf ball size hail in the Albia area. Car windows were also reported to be broken.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$50,000	Public reported power out, roof damage, and trees down at Indian Hills Inn.
September 2014	Flash Flood	Albia	$50,000	Water over the road on old Highway 34 and 189th St. with a portion of the road closed.
November 2005	Tornado (F1)	Albia	$50,000	Tornado touched down southeast of Albia and tracked across mostly open country.
April 2003	Hail	Albia	$50,000	no account filed
June 1998	Flood	Albia	$50,000	no account filed
October 2001	Hail	Albia	$30,000	no account filed
April 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$25,000	A large tree was downed at the intersection of Highway 137 and Highway 5 on the north side of Albia. Scattered tree damage was reported throughout the Albia area.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$25,000	Post event survey indicated numerous large tree limbs were down, portions of whole trees, and even a few large trees taken down along with power lines.
July 2008	Flash Flood	Albia	$25,000	Flash flooding was reported at the intersection of Highway 5 and Highway 137.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$20,000	Storm chaser reported large tree limbs down and a large tin roof on the ground near a camping areas on the south side of Albia.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$15,000	Public reported numerous trees down in Albia.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$10,000	Public reported large tree snapped in half. Report via social media.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$10,000	Numerous tree limbs down, some 3 inches or more with winds estimated at 65 MPH.
July 2008	Flash Flood	Albia	$10,000	A car stalled in the water at a low lying bridge underpass just north of town.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$10,000	no account filed
April 2003	Hail	Albia	$10,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$10,000	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$10,000	no account filed
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	Public reported trees down in Albia.
April 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds caused tree limb damage.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	A trained spotter estimated 60 MPH wind gusts.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
October 2001	Hail	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
October 2001	Hail	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
May 1996	Tornado (F0)	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
April 1996	Hail	Albia	$5,000	no account filed
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$3,000	no account filed
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$3,000	no account filed
September 2002	Hail	Albia	$3,000	no account filed
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$3,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$3,000	no account filed
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$2,000	Estimated winds of 60 MPH.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	$2,000	no account filed
May 2009	Hail	Albia	$1,000	Mostly pea to nickel size hail.
May 1998	Hail	Albia	$500	torrential rainfall
May 2024	Flash Flood	Albia	-	Report of water over old pave US 34 near Albia to a depth of around 4.5 feet.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	-	Numerous 4 inch tree branches down in tow. Delayed report, time estimated by radar.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	-	KIIC relayed report of 63 mph wind gusts.
September 2022	Hail	Albia	-	Delayed report, time estimated by radar.
September 2022	Hail	Albia	-	Delayed report, time estimated via radar.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	Trained spotter report of 5.25 inches of rain in 24 hours.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	A public report of 5.20 inches of rain in 24 hours.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	A trained spotter reported 5 inches of rain in 24 hours.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	Trained spotter reported 2.46 inches of rain in 24 hours.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	Public report of 3.03 inches of rain in approximately 50 minutes.
June 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	Trained spotter reported 5 inches of rain with rain still occurring.
July 2021	Heavy Rain	Albia	-	A rain total of 3.08 inches overnight through the morning.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Albia	-	Three trees downed, blocking northbound lanes on Iowa 137. Time estimated from radar.

Every storm recorded in Monroe 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
T. B. Perry House	under 500 feet	1983
Noble-Kendall House	0.1 miles	1984
Elbert-Bates House	0.1 miles	1985
Monroe County Courthouse	0.2 miles	1981
Dr. George A. Jenkins House	0.3 miles	1987
Arvine and Elizabeth W. White House	0.3 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85000007 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Monroe County	All 10 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.
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.