Alexander Thoirs House

Built in 1868 (Greek Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

From the record

“The Alexander Thoirs House is the oldest surviving brick house in Wabasha, Minnesota, United States, and the earliest example of the brick merchant houses that characterized the city's 19th-century streetscape. It was built in two phases in 1868 and 1870 for a successful local shoemaker.”
Wikipedia article Alexander Thoirs House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 26 National Register listings published here for Wabasha County · listed in 1989 · category: Building · built in 1868, Greek Revival architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Thoirs, Alexander, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 329 W. Second St., Wabasha, 55981
When was it listed? May 1989
Category. building
Also known as. Red Brick Houses in Wabasha, Minnesota, Associated with Merchant-Tradesmen MPS
City. Wabasha city
When was it built? 1868
Architectural style. Greek Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 89000372 - 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

7 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Alexander Thoirs House between 1994 and 2020, burning about 30 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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	2
Smoking	2
Debris and open burning	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Arson/incendiarism	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
12 August 1995	Smoking	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
17 July 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	2021008
9 April 1994	Smoking	2.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
23 April 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
19 April 1995	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
17 April 1994	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
31 March 1994	Equipment and vehicle use	25 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Wabasha County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Alexander Thoirs House: 5 occurrences, 3 producers, 2 past producers, 1 unknown. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Own Crews	Stone	Unknown
Alma High School Sand Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
Deer Creek Gravel Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
Deer Creek Shale Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Freiheit Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Lake Pepin Gravel Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
Marky Bluff Rd Limestone Deposit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Occurrence
Spring Creek Limestone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Spring Creek Shale Deposit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Occurrence
Wabasha Pit & Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Wabasha County

Storms near this property

39 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wabasha, the town this property stands in, in 39 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 17 hail, 15 thunderstorm wind, 4 heavy rain, 2 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$40,000	no account filed
May 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$15,000	A wind gust to 74 mph was measured in the city of Wabasha which blew trees down and caused power outages.
March 1998	Hail	Wabasha	$15,000	no account filed
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$12,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$10,000	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Wabasha	$3,500	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Wabasha	$3,500	no account filed
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$3,000	Public reported multiple fallen large trees on roadways and loss of electricity near Wabasha.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$2,500	no account filed
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$2,000	Trees were blown down just north of the city of Wabasha.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$2,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$2,000	no account filed
September 2000	Hail	Wabasha	$1,500	no account filed
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$1,500	no account filed
July 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$1,000	A tree was blown down onto U.S. Highway 60 near mile marker 214.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	$500	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Wabasha	$400	no account filed
April 2026	Hail	Wabasha	-	Emergency management reported quarter sized hail 1 mile southwest of Wabasha.
April 2026	Hail	Wabasha	-	The public reported ping pong ball sized hail in Wabasha.
April 2026	Hail	Wabasha	-	A trained spotter reported quarter sized hail 2 miles south-southeast of Wabasha.
July 2021	Heavy Rain	Wabasha	-	In Wabasha, two inches of rain fell.
September 2018	Heavy Rain	Wabasha	-	Near Wabasha, 4.92 inches of rain fell.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Wabasha	-	In the city of Wabasha, 6.6 inches of rain fell.
July 2014	Flood	Wabasha	-	Flooding along the Mississippi River, combined with runoff from heavy rain, caused flooding to occur on the west side of Wabasha. This flooding prompted the Minnesota Department of Transportation to close State Highway 60 in late June. The road was opened in the first week July.
June 2014	Flood	Wabasha	-	Flooding along the Mississippi River, combined with runoff from heavy rain, caused flooding to occur on the west side of Wabasha. This flooding prompted the Minnesota Department of Transportation to close State Highway 60. The road remained closed into July.
September 2010	Heavy Rain	Wabasha	-	Storm total rainfall was 7.29 inches, including 5.16 inches on September 23rd and a brand new daily September record.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	-	Trees were knocked down in town.
April 2022	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
May 2013	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
April 2009	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
March 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	-	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
May 2002	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Wabasha	-	no account filed
March 1998	Tornado (F0)	Wabasha	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed
May 1996	Hail	Wabasha	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Wabasha County

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 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Hurd House-Anderson Hotel	under 500 feet	1978
William H. and Alma Downer Campbell House	0.1 miles	1989
Lorenz and Lugerde Ginthner House	0.1 miles	1989
Wabasha Commercial Historic District	0.1 miles	1982
Grace Memorial Episcopal Church	0.3 miles	1982
Lucas Kuehn House	0.3 miles	1994

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 89000372 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Wabasha 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.