Jens Otto Christiansen House

Built in 1908 (Queen Anne style). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

From the record

“The Jens Otto Christiansen House, also known as Bedstemor's (Grandmother's) House, is a historic residence located in Elk Horn, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.”
Wikipedia article Jens Otto Christiansen House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 13 National Register listings published here for Shelby County · listed in 1997 · category: Building · built in 1908, Queen Anne style.

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 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Christiansen, Jens Otto, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 2105 College Ave., Elk Horn, 51531
When was it listed? January 1997
Category. building
Also known as. Ethnic Historic Settlement of Shelby and Audubon Counties MPS
Township. Clay township
When was it built? 1908
Architectural style. Queen Anne style
National Register reference number. 96001584 - 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

12 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Jens Otto Christiansen House between 2010 and 2017, burning about 104 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	10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2

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
13 August 2012	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
3 April 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	206 E HWY 44, KIMBALLTON, IOWA
28 April 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
25 March 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
13 March 2012	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
10 March 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	100 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 March 2013	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
19 February 2017	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Shelby County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Jens Otto Christiansen House: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. 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.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Christenson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this property

13 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elk Horn, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1995 and 2022: 8 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. 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
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Horn	$400,000	Thunderstorm winds blew the roofs off of 5 downtown buildings and felled several large trees. Power lines were also downed and substantial damage to the town's grain elevator was sustained.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Horn	$100,000	Cement shed, barn, and machine shed destroyed. Another machine shed was also damaged.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Horn	$20,000	Machine shed destroyed.
April 2022	Hail	Elk Horn	-	Broadcast Media relayed report of 1.75 inch hail.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Elk Horn	-	Trees and power lines were blown down.
April 2006	Funnel Cloud	Elk Horn	-	A funnel cloud was reported by storm chasers and emergency management near Elk Horn. The funnel apparently never touched down.
June 2015	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed
September 2015	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed
September 2015	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed
July 1995	Hail	Elk Horn	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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

2 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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Chris Larsen House	under 500 feet	1991
	Chris Poldberg Farmstead	4.2 miles	1991

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96001584 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Shelby County	All 13 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.