BlockFrom the record
One of 26 National Register listings published here for McPherson County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · built in 1889, Queen Anne style.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
McPherson Opera House
Built in 1889 (Queen Anne style). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Address. 221 S. Main St., McPherson, 67460
- When was it listed? March 1972
- Category. building
- City. McPherson city
- When was it built? 1889
- Architectural style. Queen Anne style
- National Register reference number. 72001452 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
176 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 176 fires within 5 miles of McPherson Opera House between 2002 and 2020, burning about 256 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 29 were 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 | 43 |
| Debris and open burning | 36 |
| Smoking | 32 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 29 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 19 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 30 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 29 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | McPherson County | 837 |
| 26 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | McPherson County | not named |
| 25 September 2005 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | McPherson County | not named |
| 24 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 828 |
| 22 September 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 666 |
| 20 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 6.0 acres | McPherson County | not named |
| 2 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 613 |
Storms near this property
7 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names McPherson, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1994 and 1995: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | McPherson | $50,000 | A huge tree was uprooted and landed on a house in Inman. Winds of 60 miles an hour were reported six miles west of McPherson. |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | McPherson | $5,000 | Over 60 mile an hour winds from Windom to McPherson downed tree limbs and power poles. Some businesses in McPherson had their storefront windows blown out. |
| May 1995 | Hail | McPherson | - | no account filed |
| May 1995 | Hail | McPherson | - | no account filed |
| June 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mcpherson | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Mcpherson | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Mcpherson | - | no account filed |
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 milesOther 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Kuns-Collier House | 0.2 miles | 2006 |
 | McPherson, Community Building | 0.2 miles | 2018 |
 | McPherson County Courthouse | 0.2 miles | 1976 |
 | Power Plant No. 1 | 0.2 miles | 2007 |
 | John R. Wright House | 0.3 miles | 2002 |
| Lakeside Park Band Shell | 0.9 miles | 2025 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 72001452 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| McPherson County | All 26 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.