Built in 1858. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
From the record
“The William Hemmelberg House is a historic stone farmhouse in Elba Township, Minnesota, United States. The original section was built around 1858 and the house was doubled in size with a circa-1870 addition.”
Wikipedia article William Hemmelberg House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 50 National Register listings published here for Winona County · listed in 1986 · category: Building · built in 1858.
National Register reference number.86002916- 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
1,101 words
The chapter on Elba Township in History of Winona County, published 1883 names Elba. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Elba is situated in T. 107 N., R. 10 W. Its boundaries are, on the north Whitewater township, on the east Norton, on the south St. Charles, and on the west Olmsted county. The surface is very much broken, and is covered by three deep valle_ys, which in turn are traversed by three prominent streams. There are three branches of the Whitewater river, the north branch, the east branch and the middle branch. These unite at the village of Elba, on Sec. 10, and form one principal stream, which flows north and leaves the township on Sec. 2. Whitewater river is formed by numerous springs arising from the bluffs, and furnishes excellent water-power for a number of mills along its course. The streams abound in speckled trout, and the country is much visited all through the summer months by Ashing parties in quest of sport. The bluffs along the valley are from 350 to 400 feet in height, and form some of the most beautiful scenes in that section of the country.
There are two churches, the German Catholic at Elba village, and the United Brethren on Sec. 21. The latter was built in 1876. It is 30x40 feet, with a spire forty feet tall. They have a congregation of perhaps seventy-five members, composed mostly of Germans. The first minister was Rev. Reiswick, the present one is Rev. J. Gutensohn. Attached to the church is a cemetery and two acres of land.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 30 fires within 5 miles of William Hemmelberg House
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 66 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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
Equipment and vehicle use
7
Debris and open burning
6
Smoking
6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
5
Arson/incendiarism
4
Recreation and ceremony
2
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
1 working within 5 miles of William Hemmelberg House: 1 producer.
All of them still produce. What was taken out: 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Elba, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 2005 and 2024: 3 hail, 2 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 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.
The Middle Fork of the Whitewater River at Whitewater State Park reached a record crest of 19.24 feet. Flood stage is 13.5 feet. The rapid rise of flood waters forced the evacuation of campers throughout the park.
Runoff from heavy rain caused flood waters to flow down a dry run along County Highway 37 between Elba and Altura. The flood waters caused the road bank to erode in several places.
Trees were blown down at a campground near Elba. The high winds also damaged a picnic shelter, destroyed a storage shed and one of the fallen trees went through the roof of a trailer.
Around 2.5 inches of rain fell in an hour and a half across Whitewater State Park. This sent Trout Run Creek out of its banks producing a debris jamb against a low walking bridge and washed out part of a gravel road.
A fifteen inch diameter tree was snapped thirty feet above the ground near Whitewater State Park and other trees in the area were pushed over. Corn was flattened with some snapped on the top portion of the stalks.
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
3 within 8 miles
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.
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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