Johnston Library

Built in 1872 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

From the record

“The Johnston Library is a historic library located at 210 W. 10th St. in Baxter Springs, Kansas. The building was constructed in 1872 to serve as a courthouse during Baxter Springs' unsuccessful attempt to become the Cherokee County seat.”
Wikipedia article Johnston Library, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 15 National Register listings published here for Cherokee County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1872, Neoclassical architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 210 W. 10th St., Baxter Springs, 66713
When was it listed? November 1976
Category. building
City. Baxter Springs city
When was it built? 1872
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 76000817 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

125 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 125 fires within 5 miles of Johnston Library between 1998 and 2020, burning about 755 acres in total. 13 started naturally. 10 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
Debris and open burning	50
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	40
Natural	13
Arson/incendiarism	10
Equipment and vehicle use	6
Fireworks	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Smoking	1
Power generation/transmission/distribution	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
30 September 2000	Arson/incendiarism	50 acres	Miami Agency	SNAKE PIT
29 September 2015	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	177
27 September 2010	Natural	3.8 acres	Miami Agency	MATTCRAW
13 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Cherokee County	166
8 August 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	not named
2 August 2015	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	147
13 August 2015	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Kansas Forest Service	151
7 July 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Miami Agency	CLEET

Every fire recorded in Cherokee County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 46 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 46 workings within 5 miles of Johnston Library: 44 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Zinc, Lead, Lead, Zinc, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Zinc. 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
Bingham Sand & Gravel Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
James Orr Chubb Land	Zinc	Past Producer	1935
Miami Ready Mix Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Wade Mine	Zinc	Past Producer	1920, 1926
Baxter Springs	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer
Blue Ribbon and Lucky Jenny Mine	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	1917, 1919
Brugger Tract	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	1935
Campbell Mine	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	1925, 1928
Consolidated Mine	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	1916, 1919
Davenport Mine	Lead, Zinc	Past Producer	1917, 1919

Every working recorded in Cherokee County

Storms near this property

3 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Baxter Springs, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 1994 and 1997: 2 flash flood, 1 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
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Baxter Springs	$500	Tree limbs were blown down in the Baxter Springs and Galena areas.
May 1997	Flash Flood	Baxter Springs	-	no account filed
November 1996	Flash Flood	Baxter Springs	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cherokee 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
Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station	0.1 miles	2003
Rial A. Niles House	0.5 miles	2006
Baxter Springs High School	0.5 miles	2014
Kansas Route 66 Historic District-North Baxter Springs	1.0 miles	2017
Kansas Route 66 Historic District-North Baxter Springs	1.0 miles	2015
Kansas Route 66 Historic District-North Baxter Springs	3.1 miles	2017

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 76000817 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cherokee County	All 15 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.