Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
“The Renville County Courthouse and Jail is a historic building located at 500 East DePue Avenue in Olivia, Minnesota, United States; the seat of Renville County.”
Wikipedia article Renville County Courthouse and Jail, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 9 National Register listings published here for Renville County · listed in 1986 · category: Building.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
The chapter on Bird Island Township in The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916 names Olivia. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Bird Island township embraces township 115-34. It is bounded on the north by Kingman township, on the east by Melville township, mi the south by Norfolk township and on the west by Troy township. The villages of Bird Island and Olivia are within its boundaries.
Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.
"In 1S7S the H. & D. Railroad was extended from Glencoe west through Renville county, which brought in settlers with a rush and put the villages of Hector. Bird Island. Olivia, Renville and Sacred Heart on the map. Bird Island possessed the advantage of being the end of a division. It became ambitious and went after the county seat. At the legislative session of 1S79 it secured the passage of an act removing the county seat from Beaver Falls to Bird Island, subject to a vote of the people at a special election, at which removal was defeated. It could have been carried by good management but those of us who took an active part in it failed for want of knowledge of the proper methods. We simply did not 'know how.' County seat removals are usually dirty
Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.
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 Bird Island Township - 8,051 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Olivia, the town this property stands in, in 39 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 17 thunderstorm wind, 16 hail, 3 heavy rain, 2 tornado. 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 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Olivia | $1,000,000 | Construction company building and recycling center destroyed. Department of Transportation building damaged. Vehicles damaged at dealership. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | $25,000 | There were numerous power lines that were damaged, 3 were snapped, and several large tree limbs, up to 10 inches in diameter, were blown down from near Olivia, to Hector. |
| September 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | $5,000 | Severe thunderstorm winds caused a railroad crossing arm at Highway 71, and 212 to bend in half. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Olivia | - | Half dollar sized hail near CR11 north of Olivia. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Several trees and large branches were down. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Trees were down. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Several trees were blown down in Olivia. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Several large tree limbs were blown down around Olivia. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Olivia | - | A trained spotter measured 6.54 inches of rain in Olivia. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Olivia | - | An individual measured 8.78 inches of rain north of Olivia. |
| June 2014 | Heavy Rain | Olivia | - | A 48 hour rainfall total of 5.30 inches was reported. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | A few one to two foot diameter trees were blown down around Olivia. |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Several large trees with diameters greater than 20 inches were blown down near Olivia, Minnesota. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Olivia | - | Several inches of rainfall occurred between 10 PM CST to 12 Midnight CST across a large area of Renville County. A section of Highway 212 near Olivia, Minnesota, had 12 inches of flowing water over it during the height of the storm. Some areas in Renville County measured over five inches of rainfall during the overnight hours. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Large trees downed on both North and South side of town. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Few trees toppled. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | A tree was downed onto Highway 71. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Tree down. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Semi-truck blown off the road. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Estimated winds. Trees down. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Estimated winds, six inch branches severed. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | Trees blown down. Winds estimated. |
| April 1998 | Hail | Olivia | - | Swath of 3/4 to 11/4 inch hail swept from southwest to northeast across the county. |
| October 1997 | Hail | Olivia | - | Widespread pea to marble size hail that fell in areas three inches deep severely damaged crops over a large part of Renville county. Also, power lines and trees reported blown down by strong winds in area. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| September 2020 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| September 2020 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Olivia | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Olivia | - | no account filed |
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.
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.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tinnes-Baker House | 1.3 miles | 2021 | |
 | Heins Block | 3.5 miles | 2001 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 86001281 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Renville County | All 9 listed properties in this county. |
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