Columbus Public Carnegie Library

Built in 1913 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

From the record

“The Columbus Public Carnegie Library is a Carnegie library located at 205 N. The library was built in 1913 through a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie foundation.”
Wikipedia article Columbus Public Carnegie Library, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 15 National Register listings published here for Cherokee County · listed in 1987 · category: Building · built in 1913, Neoclassical architecture, by George P. Washburn.

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. 205 N. Kansas, Columbus, 66725
When was it listed? June 1987
Category. building
Also known as. Carnegie Libraries of Kansas TR
City. Columbus city
When was it built? 1913
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
Architect. George P. Washburn
National Register reference number. 87000932 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

44 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of Columbus Public Carnegie Library between 2015 and 2018, burning about 86 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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	24
Debris and open burning	12
Arson/incendiarism	8

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
8 September 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2.0 acres	Cherokee County	221
29 September 2017	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Cherokee County	237
25 September 2017	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Cherokee County	234
4 August 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	213
28 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	141
25 July 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Kansas Forest Service	144
24 June 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Cherokee County	168
24 June 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Cherokee County	166

Every fire recorded in Cherokee County

Storms near this property

60 of 137 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Columbus, the town this property stands in, in 137 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 51 thunderstorm wind, 44 hail, 33 flash flood, 3 tornado. 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
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	1 hurt, $25,000	Thunderstorm winds caused the side of a house to blow in and collapse. There was one injury.
June 2007	Flash Flood	Columbus	$1,150,000	Another stationary band of heavy rain occurred on the night of June 11th and the morning of June 12th. In response, significant flooding occurred in all areas of the county. The Spring and Neosho rivers remained flooded, causing damage to homes and several road systems.
May 2020	Hail	Columbus	$250,000	Hail to the size of golf balls fell in the towns of Columbus and Crestline. Roof and vehicle damage occurred along the path of hail.
September 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$175,000	A portion of the Central Junior High School Gym roof was damaged by severe thunderstorm winds. This allowed rainfall to to enter the gym with nearly four inches of standing water accumulating on the gym floor.
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$100,000	A derecho caused major damage to areas of extreme southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri during the early morning hours of July 4th. In Cherokee County Kansas, golf ball size hail and winds in excess of 70 mph damaged many homes and farm structures countywide. One mobile home was completely destroyed as it rolled over several times while the storm passed. Occupants had moved into a storm shelter prior to the storm and no injuries occurred.
April 1998	Hail	Columbus	$100,000	Hail, up to golf ball size, fell in the Columbus area accumulating to a depth of two inches. There was extensive car and roof damage, especially in the north part of town. Numerous reports of funnel clouds were received in the area, but no tornado touchdowns were confirmed.
April 1999	Tornado (F1)	Columbus	$100,000	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Columbus	$50,000	no account filed
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$32,000	A tree fell down onto a house and a truck. Additionally, multiple powerlines and trees were down around town.
April 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$30,000	Several power poles were reported broken with downed power lines and power outages.
April 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$25,000	Several trees and power lines were reported down.
June 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$25,000	Several large trees were downed by high winds across the city. Some minor roof and structural damage was reported.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$25,000	A National Weather Service storm survey found evidence of 75 mph straight line winds causing some tree damage and minor structure damage west southwest of Columbus.
July 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$25,000	no account filed
February 2017	Hail	Columbus	$20,000	There several reports of damage to cars with the golf ball size hail.
February 2017	Hail	Columbus	$20,000	There were several reports of damage to cars with the golf ball size hail.
August 2020	Hail	Columbus	$15,000	A picture of hail to the size of tennis balls was received via social media from a rural part of the county. Minor roof and vehicle damage occurred to the farm stead where the hail occurred.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$10,000	Emergency management suspects that a microburst hit the town of Columbus. Several trees of all sizes were destroyed along with one roof on a garage that was ripped off.
June 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$10,000	Several trees were down in the city of Columbus. One tree fell on a house causing damage.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$10,000	Severe thunderstorm wind gusts destroyed a barn.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$10,000	no account filed
February 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	Several small outbuildings and sheds were damaged. There was a home with shingles blown off the roof.
October 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	A four foot diameter tree was blown down near 30th Street and Highway 69. There was hail damage to the house siding and roof damage. Time was estimated by radar.
May 2015	Flash Flood	Columbus	$5,000	A swift water rescue was performed on the northwest side of Columbus. A small creek flooded a county road and a mother with two children had to be rescued from their vehicle.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	Several trees and power poles were blown down.
March 2007	Flash Flood	Columbus	$5,000	Thunderstorms producing heavy rain continued to develop over portions of southeast Kansas causing flash flooding of several creeks and tributaries. Brush Creek near Columbus flooded Clems Road east of Highway 69. A portion of Highway K-7 was closed to traffic by the Kansas Department of Transportation after it was damaged by flowing water and collapsed. The intersection of Highways 69 and 103 was also underwater and impassable to motorists near Weir. Four miles west of Lawton, roads east and west of the intersection of Lawton Road and NW 40th Street were under as much as six feet of water.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	Large trees were uprooted and power lines blown down in the Mineral and Scammon areas.
May 1993	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	A series of slow moving thunderstorms produced winds near 70 miles an hour that caused tree and power line damage. They also dropped large hail in a few spots and widespread heavy rain that resulted in flash flooding.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	no account filed
June 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$5,000	no account filed
April 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$3,000	Thunderstorm winds downed power lines and damaged a transformer.
September 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$3,000	no account filed
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$2,000	Emergency management reported a large tree down.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$2,000	Severe thunderstorm wind gusts downed one power pole.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	$1,000	A large tree branch was blown down onto a power line.
January 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	A flag pole at the Courthouse was bent over by strong winds. A personal weather station 6 miles NNW of the Courthouse recorded a wind gust of 57 mph.
April 2026	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Several reports of significant street flooding were reported.
April 2026	Hail	Columbus	-	Quarter sized hail was reported.
April 2026	Hail	Columbus	-	Hail to the size of ping pong balls, 40 mph winds and heavy rainfall were reported.
April 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	A large tree was reported down closing the road.
April 2026	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Multiple roads in town were reported flooded and impassable.
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	Report of a 62mph measured wind gust in Cherokee County.
March 2023	Hail	Columbus	-	Nickle sized hail was reported via social media.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	A large limb was reported downed by high winds.
May 2022	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Numerous streets around Columbus along with several other rural roads around the county were flooded.
June 2021	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Several city roads were reported as flooded.
March 2020	Flood	Columbus	-	Multiple low water crossings in Columbus and eastern Cherokee County were flooded due to runoff from recent rainfall over the previous 6 to 12 hours.
May 2020	Hail	Columbus	-	Ping pong ball sized hail was reported in a mainly rural area.
May 2019	Heavy Rain	Columbus	-	The COOP observer measured a 24 hour rainfall total of 2.50 inches.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	Numerous large tree limbs were reported down across town.
May 2019	Heavy Rain	Columbus	-	The 24 hour rainfall accumulation measured by a Cooperative Observer was 3.97 inches. The rain began on April 30th.
July 2018	Hail	Columbus	-	Nickle size hail was reported.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	Several large tree limbs were blown down.
April 2017	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Highway 7 was flooded at several locations north of Columbus. Numerous secondary roads were flooded throughout the county.
April 2017	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Numerous low water crossings were flooded throughout Cherokee County.
September 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	There were small tree limbs blown down in Columbus.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Columbus	-	Several tree limbs were blown down in Columbus.
October 2016	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	Numerous low water crossings were flooded west of Columbus.
October 2016	Flash Flood	Columbus	-	A quarter mile section of Northwest 30th Street had one foot of water flowing over the road.

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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 87000932 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.
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.