BlockFrom the record
One of 7 National Register listings published here for Harlan County · listed in 2021 · category: Building.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service
Cordelia Bennett Preston Memorial Library
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building, 1 site, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
- Address. 510 South Orleans Ave., Orleans, 68966
- When was it listed? February 2021
- Category. building
- Township. Orleans township
- National Register reference number. 100006192 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
23 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Cordelia Bennett Preston Memorial Library between 2007 and 2019, burning about 136 acres in total. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 30 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 7 September 2007 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 30 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 1 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 August 2016 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 August 2016 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 25 August 2013 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 1 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 6 June 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Storms near this property
54 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orleans, the town this property stands in, in 54 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 35 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 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 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $350,000 | The emergency manager reported damage to a farmstead near this mesonet site. Damage included blown down power poles, building damage, uprooted trees, overturned pivots, windows blown out of a home and vehicles. |
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $230,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Orleans | $150,000 | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Orleans | $100,000 | Tennis ball to baseball size hail was reported. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Orleans | $100,000 | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Orleans | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $50,000 | no account filed |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $25,000 | Tree damage was reported on the north side of town. Wind gusts estimate based on nearby mesonet measurement. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Orleans | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $15,000 | Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph resulted in downed trees along with power outages. |
| June 2002 | Hail | Orleans | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Hail | Orleans | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Orleans | $2,000 | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | A wind gust of 65 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located three miles north-northwest of Alma. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located six miles west of Huntley. |
| April 2022 | Tornado (EFU) | Orleans | - | This tornado briefly touched down a few miles southwest of Orleans. Location and time was approximated from social media photos and radar. No damage was reported. |
| August 2021 | Heavy Rain | Orleans | - | A CoCoRaHS observer measured 6.22 of rain between 5 p.m. and midnight CDT. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | A wind gust of 63 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located six miles northwest of Orleans. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Orleans | - | Hail ranging in size from quarters to golf balls was reported along this path. |
| June 2019 | Flash Flood | Orleans | - | Up to one foot of water was flowing across a low spot on Highway 136. Highway was closed until the flood waters receded. Low spots in some county gravel roads nearby were also washed out and/or had water flowing over them. An NeRAIN observer in Alma measured a 24-hour rain total of 3.13, most of which fell between 1-3 p.m. CDT on the 18th. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Orleans | - | A storm total rainfall amount of 3.70 inches three miles northeast of Stamford, 3.48 inches occurred two miles east of Stamford, 3.25 inches occurred 3 miles north of Alma, 3.02 inches occurred in Orleans. |
| September 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | Penny size hail accompanied the winds. |
| October 2011 | Heavy Rain | Orleans | - | Total rainfall over the past 24 hours of 3.70 inches was reported. |
| October 2011 | Heavy Rain | Orleans | - | Total rainfall over the past 24 hours of 3.81 inches was reported by a Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network observer. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Orleans | - | Hail was accompanied by wind gusts estimated between 55 and 60 mph. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | Wind gusts estimated at 60 mph. |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Orleans | - | A brief tornado was reported north of Orleans |
| May 2023 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| April 2022 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2019 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| September 2012 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Orleans | - | no account filed |
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
4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel Orleans | 0.1 miles | 2021 | |
 | Alma City Auditorium and Sale Barn | 5.2 miles | 2014 |
| Alma Carnegie Library | 5.3 miles | 2021 | |
 | Sappa Creek Bridge | 5.3 miles | 1992 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 100006192 in Record Group 79. |
| Harlan County | All 7 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.
- 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.