Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
From the record
“The Harlan Commercial District is a primarily commercial historic district in downtown Harlan, Kentucky, in the United States. The district is centered on the Harlan County Courthouse and includes 41 buildings which contribute to its historic character.”
Wikipedia article Harlan Commercial District, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 5 National Register listings published here for Harlan County · listed in 1986 · category: District.
National Register reference number.86000461- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
193 since 1997
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 193 fires within 5 miles of Harlan Commercial District
between 1997 and 2020, burning about 13,384 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 33 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
78
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
58
Arson/incendiarism
33
Recreation and ceremony
18
Misuse of fire by a minor
3
Natural
2
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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
2 workings within 5 miles of Harlan Commercial District: 1 producer, 1 prospect.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Silica. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Harlan, the town this property stands in, in 41 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 23 thunderstorm wind, 15 hail, 1 debris flow, 1 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.
A foot of water was flowing over May Street. A couple of mudslides and a flooded business were reported in the Middle of Harlan as well. Substantial damage was done to roads across the county, mainly from urban and small stream flooding and from ditches washing out.
There were trees blown down, roofs blown off, including a small supermarket, billboards down. power lines down, and numerous windows blown out of downtown businesses.
Numerous reports were received of downed trees and power lines. The State Police reported that at least 50 trees had fallen across roads as a result of thunderstorm wind gusts.
Radio operators received numerous reports of wind damage including damaged signs, shingles removed from roofs, large tree limbs down, and debris in the road in downtown Harlan in the area of Main and Clover Streets.
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.
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.
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