President's Cottage

Built in 1892. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

From the record

“The President's Cottage is a historic residence located in Oskaloosa, Iowa, United States. From 1892, when it was built, to 1918 this structure housed the president of William Penn College.”
Wikipedia article President's Cottage, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 49 National Register listings published here for Mahaska County · listed in 1996 · category: Building · built in 1892.

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, 1 site as contributing to the listing.
Address. 425 College Ave., Oskaloosa, 52577
When was it listed? March 1996
Category. building
Also known as. Quaker Testimony in Oskaloosa MPS
City. Oskaloosa city
When was it built? 1892
National Register reference number. 96000340 - 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

26 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of President's Cottage between 2013 and 2017, burning about 464 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
Debris and open burning	23
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Smoking	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
3 May 2014	Debris and open burning	7.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 April 2014	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
8 April 2014	Debris and open burning	100 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
6 April 2014	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
5 April 2013	Debris and open burning	4.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
17 April 2015	Debris and open burning	25 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
15 April 2015	Debris and open burning	10 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
14 April 2015	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Mahaska County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of President's Cottage: 9 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Zinc, Clay, Bituminous. 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	Recorded
Drill Hole	Zinc	Past Producer	Sphalerite
Oskaloosa Clay Products Co. Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Oskaloosa Paving Brick Co.	Clay, Bituminous	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Langstraat Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Oskaloosa Mine & Mill	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Unknown	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Mahaska County

Storms near this property

60 of 137 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oskaloosa, the town this property stands in, in 137 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 53 thunderstorm wind, 30 hail, 26 heavy rain, 11 flood. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 1996	Lightning	Oskaloosa	1 hurt	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Oskaloosa	$530,000	no account filed
May 1996	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$500,000	no account filed
June 2000	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$350,000	no account filed
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$300,000	no account filed
August 2010	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$200,000	Iowa DOT and local media report Highway 92 closed east of Oskaloosa due to the flooding from Spring Creek.
August 1998	Lightning	Oskaloosa	$200,000	no account filed
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$100,000	A large tree fell on an apartment building. Four of the apartments had to be evacuated.
June 2010	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$100,000	Estimated 4-5 inches of rainfall.
April 2007	Flood	Oskaloosa	$100,000	no account filed
April 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$75,000	Roof taken off of the Oskaloosa Family Medical Center.
June 1996	Lightning	Oskaloosa	$75,000	no account filed
April 2012	Hail	Oskaloosa	$50,000	Quarter size hail and winds of 60 to 70 MPH.
June 2011	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$50,000	Highway 92 closed from T25 to U.S. Highway 163 by flash flooding.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$50,000	Debris from a pole barn were spread one half mile to the east and north.
October 2007	Flood	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
June 1998	Flood	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
May 1996	Flood	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
May 1996	Flood	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
August 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$50,000	no account filed
June 2001	Tornado (F1)	Oskaloosa	$40,000	Brief touchdown on a farm northeast of Oskaloosa. Several buildings damaged.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$40,000	no account filed
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$30,000	Media reported a semi blown over on Glendale Road. Time radar estimated.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$30,000	Several 4 to 6 inch diameter trees down throughout Oskaloosa.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$25,000	Emergency Manager reported widespread tree damage across town, mostly branches and limbs broken off. Numerous areas remained without power as well. Time radar estimated.
June 2008	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$25,000	Street flooding was reported in Oskaloosa between 2nd and 3rd streets.
May 2007	Flood	Oskaloosa	$25,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$25,000	no account filed
June 1998	Flood	Oskaloosa	$25,000	no account filed
July 1998	Flood	Oskaloosa	$25,000	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Oskaloosa	$25,000	no account filed
August 2007	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$20,000	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Oskaloosa	$20,000	no account filed
August 2004	Lightning	Oskaloosa	$15,000	no account filed
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Law enforcement reported tree limbs down, of unknown size, on power lines in Oskaloosa.
September 2018	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Local law enforcement reported water over the road.
June 2015	Hail	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Public report of hail around 2 inches in diameter in Oskaloosa. Photos from KCCI ulocal page.
April 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Numerous trees up to 24 inch diameter downed.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	From KBOE radio station reported by Weather Eye.
June 2010	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Water flowing over the road about 6 inches deep along 4th Ave east between South 3rd and South 1st St.
March 2009	Flood	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Higyway 92 was closed at mile post 178 due to flooding.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	A canopy was blown away by winds estimated at 60 to 70 MPH.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	Power lines were blown down on south 3rd St.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	A weak cold front sagged southeast into Iowa during the day as an upper level disturbance drifted east into the state. The air mass was moist and quiet unstable. Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon over the east two thirds of the state. One storm became severe as it moved through Mahaska County. High winds were reported two times in Oskaloosa. The winds resulted in spotty damage, downed trees, and knocked out power in the Oskaloosa area.
June 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
August 2007	Flash Flood	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
July 1998	Flood	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Oskaloosa	$10,000	no account filed
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$5,000	Mahaska County emergency manager reported many instances of tree damage and power outages across the county. Time estimated from radar, via the center of the county.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$5,000	Law enforcement reported a large tree down blocking the road near the intersection of N 9th Street and B Ave East. Time estimated from radar.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$5,000	Public reported trees down in town. Time radar estimated.
April 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Oskaloosa	$5,000	Estimated winds of 60 MPH along with pea size hail.

Every storm recorded in Mahaska 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
Spurgin Residence	under 500 feet	1996
Iowa Yearly Meeting House-College Avenue Friends Church	0.1 miles	1996
Oskaloosa Monthly Meeting of Friends Parsonage	0.1 miles	1996
William A. and Ida C. Johnson House	0.1 miles	1996
Dr. Ella Stokes House	0.2 miles	1996
Pierson-Betts House	0.2 miles	1996

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96000340 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mahaska County	All 49 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.