BlockFrom the record
One of 34 National Register listings published here for McCracken County · listed in 2016 · category: District.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
California Apartments
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
The listing
- Address. 2900 Clay, Paducah, 42001
- When was it listed? February 2016
- Category. district
- Census division. Paducah
- National Register reference number. 16000011 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
22 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of California Apartments between 1997 and 2014, burning about 80 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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 | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 23 September 1999 | Smoking | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 20 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 16 August 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 3.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | SOUTH FRIE |
| 8 July 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MAGIO |
| 6 July 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | FRIENDSHIP |
| 19 July 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BUSCLAS |
| 15 June 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | STEVENS |
Storms near this property
60 of 121 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paducah, the town this property stands in, in 121 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 46 thunderstorm wind, 19 flash flood, 18 heavy rain, 16 flood. The reports record 3 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Paducah | 2 hurt, $75,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | 1 hurt, $85,000 | A thunderstorm produced damaging winds in downtown Paducah. Two buildings were unroofed in Paducah, including part of an old warehouse and an accounting office. The roof of the accounting office was blown into a street. The roof debris struck a vehicle driven by a 75-year-old man, who was slightly injured and treated at a local hospital. The strong winds blew down a monument at the courthouse square. Bricks falling from the roof of an old hotel landed on vehicles below. |
| May 2011 | Flood | Paducah | $10,000,000 | Major flooding continued on the Ohio River from April. At the Paducah river gage, the flood crest of 55.03 feet around noon on May 5 was over three feet higher than the 1997 flood. This was still several feet lower than the record crest set in 1937. The activation of the New Madrid Floodway by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spared McCracken County from an even higher crest that would have inundated even larger areas of the county. With the detonation of the Mississippi River levee at Birds Point, Missouri, the Ohio River stopped rising or rose much more slowly at the Paducah gage. The flood gates were installed in the floodwall protecting the city of Paducah. Low-lying areas outside of the levee and floodwall protection system were flooded, displacing hundreds of residents. Preliminary estimates were that between 200 and 500 homes were flooded, some beyond repair. Many of the homes were located in the Clarks River floodplain, where water was nearly up to the second floor of one home. Ohio River backwater worsened flooding along the Clarks River, which empties into the Ohio between Reidland and Paducah. A mobile home was nearly completely submerged. Over a dozen water rescues were conducted. Water marks along tree lines were at least ten feet high in many locations near the Clarks River. Besides flooding numerous homes, the river submerged a small airport and a car-racing track. Many state roads were closed, making travel around the county difficult. The bridge carrying U.S. Route 45 over the Ohio River was closed due to water over the approaches. At the peak of the flooding, at least 60 roads were closed in McCracken County. Floodwaters crept toward U.S. Highway 60 in the city of Paducah outside the levee, but very few structures were affected on Route 60. The main exception was a major grocery store next to the levee, which was forced to close. A convention center located on the river side of the floodwall was saved by the construction of a makeshift levee. |
| June 2014 | Flash Flood | West Paducah | $150,000 | Widespread flash flooding occurred in Paducah. Between 4.8 and 5.5 inches of rain was measured in less than two hours. Numerous vehicles were stranded on flooded streets. Some people were rescued from stranded cars by police and fire personnel. A railroad underpass on a major city street was impassable. Garages and basements were flooded. Several apartments and at least one home were flooded. In the downtown Paducah area, the courthouse and jail were flooded. |
| August 2025 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $125,000 | A wide area of flooding developed near Baptist Hospital in Paducah, with water flooding the main entrance of the hospital. Multiple cars were pictured stranded in roughly 6-8 inches of water. Several vehicles were stuck in the water at 28th and Jefferson, and additional stuck vehicle reports came in from Broadway St and Jackson St. Hourly rainfall rates peaked at 1.5-2 an hr over that Midtown portion of Paducah. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $100,000 | A microburst with winds up to 75 MPH affected an area on the west side of Paducah 1.8 miles long and 0.7 mile wide. The damage path was entirely along Kentucky Highway 305, beginning about 2 miles west of Interstate 24 and ending about 100 yards west of exit 3 on the interstate. Small sheds and outbuildings were destroyed, siding and roofs were damaged, and trees were uprooted or snapped. A pontoon boat was blown into a motor home, damaging both. A flatbed trailer was extensively damaged by a tree that fell on it. Three utility poles were broken, and 10 spans of wire between poles were knocked down by trees. Kentucky Highway 305 and a set of railroad tracks were closed due to trees and power lines down. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $75,000 | Widespread damaging winds occurred over the county. Numerous trees and power lines were down. Some roads were blocked by downed trees and power lines, especially Highway 2187 on the south side of Paducah. The roof was partially torn off a downtown office building in Paducah, and windows were blown out. A power pole was down in Paducah. Thousands of people lost power. Some of the power outages lasted through the following day. The peak wind gust at the National Weather Service at Barkley Regional Airport was 62 mph. |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $75,000 | no account filed |
| March 1997 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $70,000 | no account filed |
| October 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $60,000 | Three buildings lost their roofs in a densely populated neighborhood on the north side of Paducah. One building was residential, and the other two buildings were commercial. |
| January 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $50,000 | A camper was destroyed. A tree fell on a house, causing structural damage. |
| May 1997 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $50,000 | Slow moving thunderstorms produced rainfall amounts estimated as much as 2 inches per hour over downtown Paducah. The police department reported all major intersections in downtown Paducah were covered by water. Water went over the Crooked Creek bridge. Evacuations were advised for a small neighborhood on the west side of paducah. Several roads were closed by high water. |
| January 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $35,000 | Trees were down over roads in at least three locations in Paducah. A tree fell on a car in Reidland. Some minor damage was reported to the convention center near downtown Paducah. |
| August 2016 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $30,000 | Flash flooding of portions of U.S. Highway 45 was reported in Paducah. A county road in the Lone Oak area was washed out, leaving a large hole in the roadway. Water was reported over several roads. The National Weather Service office in Paducah measured 2.43 inches of rain in 50 minutes. |
| October 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $30,000 | An isolated small thunderstorm produced wind gusts around 70 MPH as it passed over the western side of Paducah. An off-duty meteorologist estimated speeds near 70 MPH at the intersection of Interstate 24 and U.S. Highway 60. Trees were blown down in the area. At Kentucky Oaks Mall, signs were blown down, including a Days Inn motel sign. A utility pole was pushed over. The storm continued to produce some damage as it passed across the Ohio River into Brookport, Illinois in Massac County. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $25,000 | Considerable flooding of streets and creeks was reported. A state road was undermined near Lone Oak. County emergency management personnel utilized all available personnel to block flooded roads. |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $25,000 | Numerous tree limbs were blown down, causing scattered power outages. At least 8 streets were blocked by fallen trees or power lines. A tree limb about 9 inches in diameter brought power lines down across U.S. Highway 62 just west of I-24. Route 62 was closed for about an hour. The storm produced 60 MPH wind at a sensor maintained by the Paducah Power System. |
| February 2019 | Flood | Paducah | $20,000 | During the height of the heavy rainfall, a couple of flood-prone intersections were flooded in Paducah. Following the heavy rain, creeks remained out of their banks. A few state roads near these flood-prone creeks were closed. These roads included Routes 994 and 1014 at Champion Creek and Route 339 at Mayfield Creek. |
| August 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $20,000 | A wind gust to 59 mph was measured at Barkley Regional Airport, four miles west of Paducah. Numerous tree limbs and a few small trees were blown down about a mile north of the airport. A tree fell on a house in the city of Paducah. |
| March 1999 | Lightning | Paducah | $20,000 | Lightning started a house fire. |
| July 1998 | Lightning | Paducah | $20,000 | Nearly continuous lightning from a very strong thunderstorm caused scattered damage in and near Paducah. Two direct lightning strikes on the runway lighting system at Barkley Regional Airport caused the cancellation of the only two evening commercial passenger flights. Small electrical fires were started by lightning at two separate houses in Paducah, and a tree was downed by lightning in the city. |
| May 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $20,000 | A wind gust to 84 MPH was clocked at the National Weather Service office in West Paducah. Damage to trees, signs, and unsecured outdoor objects occurred from the Barkley Regional Airport to the western city limits of Paducah. Spotty roof damage was also observed, and siding was ripped from the National Weather Service office. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $15,000 | About four miles west of Paducah, a wind gust to 62 mph was measured by a trained spotter. Downed trees and power lines blocked Kentucky Highway 305 between Interstate 24 and Highway 358 for several hours. |
| September 2009 | Heavy Rain | Paducah | $15,000 | Street flooding was reported in the usual problem areas on Business Loop U.S. 60 on the south side of Paducah. The water was one to three feet deep and caused at least a few vehicles to stall out. One small car floated around. Police assisted motorists. |
| April 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $10,000 | A sixty-foot section of tin roof was removed from a car wash. A storm damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service determined the damage was caused by a microburst. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $10,000 | Shingles were blown off a house onto a neighbor's house. Tree branches were blown down. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $10,000 | An intersection on U.S. Highway 62 was shut down because of flooding that was estimated to be almost two feet deep. Considerable street flooding was reported on roadways across Paducah, including the railroad underpass on U.S. Highway 62. Some cars were stranded. A television station in Paducah measured 2.40 inches of rain. |
| November 2005 | Lightning | Paducah | $10,000 | A mobile home in downtown Paducah completely burned due to a lightning strike. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $10,000 | Thunderstorm wind gusts blew off part of the roof of a furniture store. There was no other damage in the area, and wind speed estimates from spotters were around 50 MPH. |
| September 2000 | Lightning | Paducah | $10,000 | Lightning struck the Irvin Cobb Apartments, a downtown Paducah landmark formerly known as the Irvin Cobb Hotel. The chimney was struck by lightning, and fallen debris closed a block of South 6th Street. Debris fell through the roof of a ninth-floor apartment, creating a hole through which water leaked. |
| January 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $10,000 | About 10 trees were down across roadways in McCracken County. In the Reidland area, an outbuilding was down. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $10,000 | Numerous trees were blown down in a small area south of Barkley Regional Airport. The microburst brought down some large trees up to 70 feet tall. At least one road was blocked by fallen trees. |
| May 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $8,000 | Sporadic reports of downed tree limbs and power lines were received from across the county. A back porch was damaged. |
| November 1996 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $8,000 | no account filed |
| August 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $7,000 | In West Paducah, a large tree was down on a house. A couple miles southwest of West Paducah, a tree was down on a road. |
| July 2025 | Flash Flood | Paducah | $5,000 | A water rescue took place for a stranded vehicle at 21st Street and Mayfield Paducah Rd. |
| November 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $5,000 | On the west side of Paducah, a few downed trees were photographed and posted on social media. One of the trees fell over Highway 305. A highway sign along Interstate 24 near exit 4 was damaged. Power outages were reported. |
| October 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $5,000 | A Paducah television station estimated wind gusts from 55 to 60 MPH. Power lines and a few large tree limbs were blown down in the city. A large tree limb fell on a dump truck, causing minor damage to the truck. Power lines fell on a car. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $5,000 | Large tree limbs were blown down in a residential neighborhood on the west side of town. The damage area was about one square mile. |
| July 2002 | Lightning | Paducah | $5,000 | A shed burned down after a lightning strike. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $5,000 | Wind gusts to 60 MPH were estimated on the Irvin Cobb Bridge in Paducah. About 10 trees were blown down in Paducah. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $3,000 | An off-duty National Weather Service meteorologist reported tree limbs were down in a residential neighborhood. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $3,000 | Two trees were down, along with power lines. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $3,000 | Trees were down in Lone Oak. Power lines were down in West Paducah. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $2,000 | Two large trees were snapped in Paducah. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $2,000 | Several trees were blown down by winds estimated up to 60 mph. |
| June 2007 | Flash Flood | West Paducah | $2,000 | The automated observing system at the National Weather Service office at Barkley Regional Airport measured about 2.65 inches of rain in one hour. Extensive street flooding was reported countywide. Water crept into the county courthouse basement, wetting some carpet. Four people were injured in a rear-end collision on Interstate 24 when several vehicles slowed in the heavy rain. Standing water on U.S. Highway 60 near the Ballard County line contributed to an accident. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $2,000 | A person was trapped inside their vehicle under downed power lines. A fallen tree blocked a secondary road. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $2,000 | A few trees and wires were blown down on the west side of Paducah and in Lone Oak. The storm that caused the tree damage originated in southeast Missouri, crossed southwest Illinois, and weakened shortly after crossing the Ohio River into the Paducah area. |
| October 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Paducah | $2,000 | Five tree tops, up to 20 inches in diameter, were blown down. Along the Ballard County line, a 40-foot television tower and a tree limb fell on a roof, causing minor damage. |
| March 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $2,000 | Gusty thunderstorm winds knocked down a large tree limb onto a house. |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paducah | $1,000 | Two trees were blown down, including one that fell on a cable line. |
| July 2025 | Flood | Paducah | - | A webcam showed street flooding of several inches near downtown Paducah. |
| February 2022 | Flash Flood | Paducah | - | Several state roads were closed due to flooding. Massac and Champion Creeks overflowed onto roadways and yards. A railroad underpass on U.S. Highway 62 in Paducah was flooded and closed. |
| March 2022 | Flood | Paducah | - | Moderate flooding occurred on the Ohio River. At the Paducah river gage, the river crested at 44.58 feet on the 2nd. Flood stage is 39 feet. Mainly bottomland and surrounding low-lying areas were flooded. Floodwaters crept into some back yards along Highway 1420 west of the city. The riverfront park in downtown Paducah was partially flooded but remained open to traffic. |
| January 2021 | Flood | Paducah | - | U.S. Highway 60 was flooded at an intersection in Paducah. |
| March 2020 | Hail | Paducah | - | A severe thunderstorm produced hail up to the size of golf balls in Paducah, mostly in the downtown area north along the Ohio River. |
Newspapers printed here
27,203 digitised pages6 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 3,834 issues, 27,203 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| The Paducah Evening Sun | 1906 to 1929 |
| The Paducah Weekly Sun | 1902 to 19?? |
| The Paducah Sun | 1898 to 1906 |
| Paducah Sun | 1??? to 1902 |
| The Paducah Daily Sun | 1896 to 1898 |
| The Sunday Chat | 1901 to 19?? |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Confederate Monument in Paducah | 0.9 miles | 1997 |
| Paducah Northside Historic District | 1.1 miles | 2022 | |
| Home of the Friendless | 1.1 miles | 2000 | |
| Jefferson Street-Fountain Avenue Residential District (Boundary Increase) | 1.1 miles | 2012 | |
| Lloyd Tilghman Memorial | 1.2 miles | 1997 | |
| Jefferson Street-Fountain Avenue Residential District | 1.3 miles | 1982 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 16000011 in Record Group 79. |
| McCracken County | All 34 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.