BlockFrom the record
One of 26 National Register listings published here for Olmsted County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Rochester Armory
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
- Address. 121 N. Broadway, Rochester
- When was it listed? December 1980
- Category. building
- City. Rochester city
- National Register reference number. 80004268 - 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.
The ground it stands on
51,537 wordsThe chapter on Rochester City in History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, published 1910 names Rochester. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
THE first known discovery of the site of Rochester was by a party of United States surveyors, under charge of Thomas Simpson, a well-known resident, for years, of Winona, who were running the line and setting the stakes marking the townships, but not subdividing them into sections. Mr. Simpson says :
Passage source: History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, published 1910.
That same spring, but probably later than the discovery by the surveying party, Robert H. McReady, with his family, and Thomas C. Cummings, both from Herkimer county, New York, looking for new homes on the frontier, located farms of a quarter section each on what is now the western edge of the city of Rochester, McReady's being outside the city, afterward the home of M. VV. Leland, and recently of Philip D. Manley. Cunimings' claim was south of McReady's, and part of it was, later, platted as Cummings' addition to the city, and includes the district extending from the court house to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad and west to the city limits.
Passage source: History of Olmsted County, Minnesota, published 1910.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Rochester City - 51,537 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Fires near this property
1 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Rochester Armory in 2000, burning under an acre in total. None started naturally. None was 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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 May 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Rochester Armory: 7 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maywood Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| West River Road Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Q & A Club Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Quarve & Anderson Club M | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Rochester Sand & Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Rochester Sand and Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| South Pit & Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this property
60 of 218 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rochester, the town this property stands in, in 218 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 104 hail, 64 thunderstorm wind, 15 flood, 13 lightning. The reports record 1 death. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | 1 killed, $10,000 | One person was killed east of Rochester when a 40 foot pine tree was snapped off, fell and landed on the individual and his pickup truck. |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Rochester | $35,000,000 | Heavy thunderstorm rains caused widespread flash flooding in Rochester and surrounding areas across the county. Extensive damage was caused to sewer systems, water wells, roadways, parks, and flood control reservoirs.||Highway 14 was closed east of Rochester due to wash outs and flash flooding. A mudslide hit the Ronald McDonald house in Rochester with evacuations around 6 a.m. Red Cross shelters were set up. Flooding reports began around 915 p.m. Saturday August 18. |
| August 1999 | Hail | Rochester | $1,500,000 | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Rochester | $1,250,000 | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Rochester | $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Rochester | $750,000 | no account filed |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $500,000 | Over 175 trees were blown down across Rochester. Numerous homes and cars were damaged when the trees landed on them. Power lines were also blown down or came down with the fallen trees, knocking out the power to 4,800 customers across the city. |
| August 1999 | Hail | Rochester | $500,000 | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Flash Flood | Rochester | $400,000 | Locally heavy rains in Rochester produced flash flooding that inundated several street intersections causing numerous vehicles to become stranded. Some of the stranded vehicles had water up to their windows. The heavy rain also caused water to cascade into a below ground entrance of a Mayo Health building. Trash cans put out to be picked up floated down the streets, often spilling their contents. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $320,000 | no account filed |
| March 1998 | Hail | Rochester | $250,000 | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $160,000 | Numerous trees were blown down across Rochester. Power poles were snapped, creating several power outages across the city that affected more than 3,500 customers. One tree fell on a church, causing roof damage that allowed water to leak into the building. |
| April 2026 | Hail | Rochester | $150,000 | A trained spotter reported golf ball sized hail 4 miles north of Rochester. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Rochester | $100,000 | Golfball sized hail was reported on the southeast side of Rochester. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $100,000 | no account filed |
| April 2026 | Tornado (EF1) | Rochester | $87,000 | This EF-1 tornado began in northeast portions of Rochester resulting in minor roof damage to a couple of homes before moving northeast through rural portions of Olmsted County, damaging trees and a few electrical poles before moving into Wabasha County. |
| August 2000 | Hail | Rochester | $75,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $75,000 | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $70,000 | Trees were blown down on the southwest side of Rochester that also brought down some power lines. Over 1,200 customers lost power. The frame of a house was broken by the impact of a tree falling on it. |
| August 1995 | Tornado (F0) | Rochester | $70,000 | Brief tornado touchdown resulted in extensive damage to office plaza roof. Several large trees uprooted. Numerous power lines down. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $70,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $55,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Rochester | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Rochester | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Rochester | $50,000 | no account filed |
| March 1998 | Hail | Rochester | $50,000 | no account filed |
| September 2012 | Lightning | Rochester | $45,000 | The roof of a home on the southeast side of Rochester was destroyed by a fire that was ignited by a lightning strike. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $45,000 | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | Rochester | $40,000 | A short-lived tornado moved through the southwest portions of Rochester. The roof of one home was partially removed and numerous trees were damaged along the path of the tornado. |
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $40,000 | Several trees were blown down across Rochester. A few homes were damaged when trees landed on them. |
| September 2012 | Lightning | Rochester | $40,000 | A house on the southeast side of Rochester was struck by lightning which started a fire in the attic. The fire was quickly brought under control but the lightning strike created a serious electrical problem in the house and two firefighters received minor shocks but were not injured. |
| August 2013 | Flood | Rochester | $35,000 | Locally heavy rain produced street flooding on the southwest side of Rochester. One vehicle became stranded in a flooded intersection. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $35,000 | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Rochester | $30,000 | Ping pong sized hail fell east of Rochester. Several cars were damaged by the hail. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $30,000 | An estimated 60 mph wind gust occurred in the Apache Mall area in Rochester. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across the southwest part of the city. At one point, up to 2,000 customers were without power. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Rochester | $30,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Rochester | $30,000 | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Lightning | Rochester | $25,000 | A lightning strike started a fire at an apartment building on the east side of Rochester. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Rochester | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Lightning | Rochester | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Rochester | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Rochester | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Lightning | Rochester | $20,000 | A fire was started in a house on the northwest side of Rochester from a lightning strike. The fire caused damaged to the roof and trusses of the house. |
| August 2007 | Flood | Rochester | $20,000 | Law enforcement officials reported some roads washed out or still under water. |
| August 2007 | Flood | Rochester | $20,000 | Cascade Creek and the South Fork of the Zumbro River responded to excessive rainfall by rising quickly above flood stage. Cascade Creek reached a crest of 16.52 feet. Flood stage is 13.0 feet. The Zumbro River crested at 16.64 feet. Flood stage is 14.0 feet. |
| May 2008 | Hail | Rochester | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Rochester | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Rochester | $20,000 | no account filed |
| March 1998 | Hail | Rochester | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Rochester | $18,000 | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $15,000 | Trained spotters in Rochester reported a 62 mph wind gust with a tree down on a powerline as well. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $15,000 | Part of a large tree was blown down onto a house on the north side of Rochester. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Rochester | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Flash Flood | Rochester | $15,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $14,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rochester | $12,500 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Flood | Rochester | $10,000 | Heavy rain caused a mall parking lot on the southwest side of Rochester to flood. Several cars became partially submerged in the water. |
| June 2013 | Lightning | Rochester | $10,000 | The corner of a house on the northeast side of Rochester was started on fire by a lightning strike. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timothy A. Whiting House | under 500 feet | 1980 | |
 | Avalon Hotel | under 500 feet | 1982 |
| Chateau Dodge Theatre | 0.2 miles | 1980 | |
 | Rochester Public Library | 0.3 miles | 1980 |
| Maass and McAndrew Company Building | 0.4 miles | 2016 | |
| Pierce House | 0.5 miles |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 80004268 in Record Group 79. |
| Olmsted 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.
- 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.