Morgan County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

“Morgan County Courthouse is a historic courthouse located in Versailles, Morgan County, Missouri. It was built in 1889 and is a two-story, Second Empire style red brick building on a limestone block foundation.”
Wikipedia article Morgan County Courthouse (Missouri), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 5 National Register listings published here for Morgan County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.

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.
Address. Courthouse Sq., Versailles, 65084
When was it listed? January 1980
Category. building
Township. Haw Creek township
Architectural style. Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada
National Register reference number. 80002383 - 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

58 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of Morgan County Courthouse between 1992 and 2020, burning about 339 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 5 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	27
Debris and open burning	24
Arson/incendiarism	5
Natural	1
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.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
4 September 2017	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	not named
20 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	10 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	241022-07140-08202020-1559
29 July 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	not named
26 July 2017	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	not named
14 July 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Missouri Department of Conservation	not named
1 June 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Missouri Department of Conservation	not named
5 May 1992	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	not named
2 May 2015	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Missouri Department of Conservation	127890-07147-05022015-1401

Every fire recorded in Morgan County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 30 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 30 workings within 5 miles of Morgan County Courthouse: 30 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Lead, Fire Clay (Refractory), Lead, Zinc, 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Bowers Mine	Lead, Barium-Barite	Past Producer
Mccormick and Thayer Shaft	Coal, Lead, Zinc	Past Producer
Sheets Prospect No 1 & 2	Barium-Barite, Lead	Past Producer
Silvey Zinc Mine	Zinc	Past Producer
Versailles and African Diggings	Zinc, Lead, Coal	Past Producer
Big Three Mine	Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc	Past Producer
Eureka - Scott Diggings	Barium-Barite	Past Producer
Hite Barite Prospect	Barium-Barite	Past Producer
Old Clark Diggings	Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc	Past Producer
Bremmer Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Morgan County

Storms near this property

60 of 90 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Versailles, the town this property stands in, in 90 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 32 hail, 32 thunderstorm wind, 17 flash flood, 5 heavy rain. 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
April 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$500,000	A line of severe thunderstorms produced widespread wind damage and several reports of hail. Power lines and numerous trees were blown down. Many wooden and a few tin barns lost parts of their walls or roof. A few barns were pushed partially off their foundations. Near Versailles, an aviation hangar and two small planes at a private airstrip were damaged. Several houses in town sustain damage to shingles.
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$140,000	A severe thunderstorm produced a two to three mile wide swath of scattered wind damage and hail from two miles northwest of Excelsior to six miles southwest of Excelsior. Strong winds damaged 23 farm buildings, while a combination of wind and hail damaged crops.
May 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$130,000	Multiple trees and power lines were reported to be down. Additionally, a lightning strike caused a house fire, and a nearby machine shop suffered heavy damage.
April 2026	Lightning	Versailles	$50,000	A home was struck by lightning causing a structure fire on the south side of Versailles.
March 1993	Hail	Versailles	$50,000	The Morgan County Sheriff's Office reported lightning started a house fire.
March 2020	Hail	Versailles	$15,000	Pin pong ball sized hail was reported via social media. Minor vehicle and roof damage.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$15,000	Severe thunderstorm wind gusts partially blew a roof off of a frame house. Trees were also downed.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$10,000	Numerous trees were blown down as well as power poles snapped around the Versailles area.
September 2016	Flash Flood	Versailles	$10,000	Water was reported over Marvin Road east of Versailles. Several basements in the city of Versailles were flooded.
June 2008	Flash Flood	Versailles	$10,000	Several county roads near Lake of the Ozarks were washed out from flooding.
June 1996	Flash Flood	Versailles	$10,000	no account filed
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$5,000	A small shed was blown over in the city of Versailles.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$5,000	Two trees were blown down in the city park. A metal roof was torn off of a structure.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$5,000	Several trees were blown down in Versailles.
June 1994	Hail	Versailles	$5,000	Large hail damaged area crops and wind gusts knocked down large trees south of Versailles.
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$5,000	no account filed
April 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$5,000	no account filed
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$5,000	no account filed
March 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$3,000	Thunderstorm winds downed a tree limb which fell on a house in Versailles.
June 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$3,000	no account filed
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$1,000	A tree was blown down on a powerline in Versailles.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	$1,000	Thunderstorm wind gusts knocked over two fireworks stands while snapping one large tree.
July 2025	Funnel Cloud	Versailles	-	Several reports of a funnel cloud were received from areas northeast of Versailles. No touch down occurred.
November 2025	Hail	Versailles	-	Report of half dollar size hail one mile south of Versailles.
May 2024	Hail	Versailles	-	Report of quarter size hail.
May 2024	Hail	Versailles	-	Report of quarter size hail.
February 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Multiple limbs of an inch or greater were reported down.
February 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Several large limbs were reported down.
March 2020	Hail	Versailles	-	Quarter sized hail was reported via MPing.
July 2020	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Several city streets were reported as flooded and impassable along Highway 52 at Newton and DeKalb Streets.
July 2020	Heavy Rain	Versailles	-	Rainfall of 2.63 inches was recorded in just over a three hour period.
June 2019	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Several streets were flooded and impassable for a time in town.
October 2019	Heavy Rain	Versailles	-	The CoCoRaHS station MO-MG-7 near Versallies reported 2.58 inches of rainfall.
August 2019	Flood	Versailles	-	Water was ponding on Jefferson Street making it impassable.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Several large trees were blown down throughout Morgan County. This report was from county dispatch.
April 2017	Heavy Rain	Versailles	-	Storm total rainfall of 4.05 inches was measured.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Several trees were blown down in Versailles.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Versailles	-	A storm total of 3.00 inches of rainfall was measured in 24 hours.
April 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Several large trees were blown down.
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Several large tree limbs were blown down in Versailles.
June 2015	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Highway W about 2 miles south of Versailles was flooded and impassable.
June 2015	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Highway C about 1 mile east of Versailles was flooded with a foot of water over the road.
May 2015	Hail	Versailles	-	There was a public photo shared on social media of half dollar sized hail.
November 2015	Heavy Rain	Versailles	-	A storm total rainfall report of 2.39 inches was measured.
April 2014	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Several low water crossing were flooded across the county.
September 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	A tree was blown down in the city of Versailles with several other trees reported down across Morgan County.
September 2010	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Multiple roads in and around Versailles were reported as flooded and impassable.
September 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	A large tree was downed by strong thunderstorm winds.
July 2010	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Numerous low water crossings throughout Morgan County were reported to have been flooded.
November 2009	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Several low water roads and bridges were flooded across the county.
June 2009	Funnel Cloud	Versailles	-	A trained spotter observed a funnel cloud.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Law enforcement estimated 60 mph wind gusts.
May 2007	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Excessive rainfall caused signficant flash flooding in the city of Versailles. Numerous roads were impassable to motorists while the main intersection of Highways 52 and 5 also became impassable. A few businesses experienced flooding near this intersection, including a gas staion.
August 2004	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	Heavy thunderstorms produced flash flooding in the city of Versailles. Creeks near the community ran out of their banks and into roads and other low lying areas.
August 2004	Flash Flood	Versailles	-	A section of Highway 52 was inundated with flash flooding near the junction of Highway 5.
September 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Several large tree branches were snapped off of trees from severe thunderstorm wind gusts.
July 1995	Hail	Versailles	-	A severe thunderstorm produced a two to three mile wide swath of scattered wind damage and hail from two miles northwest of Excelsior to six miles southwest of Excelsior. Strong winds damaged 23 farm buildings, while a combination of wind and hail damaged crops.
May 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	A strong wind gust knocked down three large trees.
April 1994	Hail	Versailles	-	A line of severe thunderstorms produced widespread wind damage and several reports of hail. Power lines and numerous trees were blown down. Many wooden and a few tin barns lost parts of their walls or roof. A few barns were pushed partially off their foundations. Near Versailles, an aviation hangar and two small planes at a private airstrip were damaged. Several houses in town sustain damage to shingles.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Versailles	-	Large hail damaged area crops and wind gusts knocked down large trees south of Versailles.

Every storm recorded in Morgan 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

2 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.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Second Baptist Church and Booker T. Washington School Historic District	0.6 miles	2020
	Martin Hotel	0.6 miles	1978

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80002383 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Morgan County	All 5 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.