Pearl Opera House

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2024.

From the record

One of 20 National Register listings published here for Wabaunsee County · listed in 2024 · category: Building.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Address. 601 Main Street, Alta Vista, 66834
When was it listed? August 2024
Category. building
Also known as. Theaters and Opera Houses of Kansas MPS
Township. Garfield township
National Register reference number. 100010620 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

10 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Pearl Opera House between 2015 and 2018, burning about 114 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	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Other causes	1
Equipment and vehicle use	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
20 July 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Morris County	10
20 July 2017	Debris and open burning	7.0 acres	Morris County	11
11 April 2017	Debris and open burning	5.0 acres	Morris County	9
3 March 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	5
26 March 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	35 acres	Kansas Forest Service	10
21 March 2018	Debris and open burning	25 acres	Kansas Forest Service	8
18 March 2017	Debris and open burning	12 acres	Morris County	5
14 October 2015	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	18

Every fire recorded in Wabaunsee County

Storms near this property

60 of 70 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alta Vista, the town this property stands in, in 70 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 44 hail, 17 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 3 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
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	$45,000	Strong winds damaged several outbuildings and silos.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	$15,000	Strong winds blew down tree limbs as large as 2 feet in diameter onto vehicles doing damage.
September 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	$2,000	Two tree up to 2 feet in diameter snapped in half along K4 Highway.
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	$2,000	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Alta Vista	$1,000	Tree damage and bay window broken on house were reported.
June 2009	Hail	Alta Vista	$1,000	Tree damage and bay window broken was on house.
May 2025	Tornado (EF0)	Alta Vista	-	A small tornado produce tree damage just north of a property in southern Wabaunsee County. The small tornado moved east of highway 4 and into pastureland where there were few damage indicators. The end point was estimated based on radar imagery.
June 2025	Hail	Alta Vista	-	Estimated hail to quarter size in diameter.
March 2024	Tornado (EF2)	Alta Vista	-	NWS damage survey along with multiple video accounts show a tornado formed just east of Alta Vista then tracked over mainly rural areas of Wabaunsee County to the northeast producing damage along an 8.5 mile long track. The tornado was most intense just northeast of Alta Vista and southeast of Volland where EF2 damage was found to hardwood trees where widespread healthy tree trunks were snapped on the west side of the circulation. The survey crew could not access further east closer to the center point or eastern flank of the tornado circulation damage path however it is estimated that this was around 300 yards wide at its widest point. Maximum winds estimated to around 115 mph based upon damage to hardwood trees.
April 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	Wind gust of 65 mph reported by NWS employee.
May 2020	Tornado (EFU)	Alta Vista	-	Storm chasers also reported a small tornado on the ground northeast of Alta Vista. No damage was reported from this tornado. Other chasers viewing this storm from 15-20 miles east of it also reported a tornado around 825 pm looking west toward Wabaunsee County.
August 2019	Tornado (EFU)	Alta Vista	-	Law enforcement reported 2 small tornadoes this is the northern tornado. No damage was noted with the tornadoes however reports and radar do suggest that they existed in some form. Path and time are estimated off radar and reports.
May 2017	Tornado (EF0)	Alta Vista	-	A report from a chaser indicated a brief tornado in open country in the Flint Hills. No damage was reported. The tornado lasted less than 30 seconds.
May 2017	Hail	Alta Vista	-	Report received via social media.
May 2017	Hail	Alta Vista	-	The report was time estimated via radar.
June 2014	Flood	Alta Vista	-	Minor flooding of creek. Water appears to be more than 1 foot deep over low water crossing but creek still running within banks.
May 2012	Hail	Alta Vista	-	The hail fell for 10 minutes.
March 2012	Hail	Alta Vista	-	This is a delayed report, discovered on social media.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	Spotter measured winds of 65 mph.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	A tree was knocked over 2 miles south of Alta Vista.
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	A trained spotter reported 60 mph winds. a metal flag pole was pushed over as a result of the wind.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	Two inch limbs are breaking off trees.
June 2009	Hail	Alta Vista	-	Tree damage and bay window broken on house were reported.
July 2008	Hail	Alta Vista	-	Several trained spotter in Alta Vista reported hail from one and three quarter inches in diameter to two and a half inches in diameter.
March 2006	Hail	Alta Vista	-	Hail covered the ground.
June 2004	Flash Flood	Alta Vista	-	Heavy rains produced flash flooding that did crop damage near Alta Vista.
June 2004	Flash Flood	Alta Vista	-	Heavy rains of 6 to 10 inches produced flash flooding near Alta Vista.
June 2004	Flash Flood	Alta Vista	-	Heavy rains caused a creek to overflow.
April 2026	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
August 2019	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2016	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
May 2013	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2011	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2011	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
July 2008	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
October 2007	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
July 2007	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2005	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
November 2003	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Alta Vista	-	no account filed
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Alta Vista	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wabaunsee 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
	Grimm-Schultz Farmstead	6.9 miles	2020
	Fix Farmstead	7.6 miles	2015

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100010620 in Record Group 79.
Wabaunsee County	All 20 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.