Pilgrim Holiness Church

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

From the record

“The Pilgrim Holiness Church, also known as the Baled Hay Church or the Baled Straw Church, is a church built in 1928 in Arthur, Nebraska. At a time and place in which conventional construction materials were expensive or unavailable, it was built out of baled rye straw.”
Wikipedia article Pilgrim Holiness Church (Arthur, Nebraska), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 2 National Register listings published here for Arthur County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.

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

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. Off NE 61, Arthur, 69121
When was it listed? June 1979
Category. building
Precinct. Arthur precinct
National Register reference number. 79001434 - 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

11 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Pilgrim Holiness Church between 2003 and 2018, burning about 623 acres in total. 8 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
Natural	8
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	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
20 September 2015	Misuse of fire by a minor	3.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
12 September 2017	Natural	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
2 August 2008	Natural	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
15 August 2015	Power generation/transmission/distribution	100 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
25 July 2005	Natural	7.0 acres	Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge	CAMEL
6 June 2018	Natural	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
26 June 2016	Natural	4.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
1 June 2008	Natural	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Arthur County

Storms near this property

60 of 200 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Arthur, the town this property stands in, in 200 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 148 hail, 41 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$75,000	Most of a metal roof was blown off of a residents home. In addition, extensive water damage was also reported to this residence.
July 1998	Flash Flood	Arthur	$50,000	Rainfall of approximately 2.50 inches in 20 minutes caused flash flooding in the coummunity of Arthur. There was extensive damage to streets and roads, basements flooded, and water in homes and businesses.
June 2015	Hail	Arthur	$40,000	Windows were broken, screens were knocked out, and a car was damaged.
August 2002	Lightning	Arthur	$30,000	Lightning struck the TV antenna on a house and then traveled through the wiring in the house. The house received extensive fire, heat and smoke damage.
June 2004	Tornado (F0)	Arthur	$25,000	During touchdown the tornado damaged or uprooted numerous trees, destroyed a wind mill and a 40 foot metal tower. The metal roof of nearby barn was peeled off and a trailer home was moved about 1 foot, with damage to the roof and siding.
June 2015	Hail	Arthur	$20,000	A window was broken, screens were knocked out, and a car sustained damage from tennis ball size hail.
June 2009	Hail	Arthur	$10,000	Wind gusts of approximately 60 MPH accompanied the hail.
June 2005	Tornado (F1)	Arthur	$10,000	Several storm chasers followed the supercell storm and recorded the tornado development. The tornado broke off or uprooted numerous trees, destroyed one small shed, peeled off the roof of another outbuilding, and damaged shingles on a home.
August 2001	Hail	Arthur	$10,000	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$8,000	Thunderstorm outflow winds broke off large tree limbs. A roof of a house was damaged as a tree limb fell on it.
October 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$5,000	Public report that a power line was knocked down and caused a prairie fire.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds broke off large tree branches which fell on and damaged playground equipment at the city park.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$5,000	Two 20 inch diameter utility poles were snapped near the ground. A 12 inch diameter tree trunk was also broken by the wind.
April 2005	Hail	Arthur	$5,000	Golfball to baseball size hail covered the ground and broke out windows in a house.
June 2015	Hail	Arthur	$5,000	no account filed
June 2003	Hail	Arthur	$5,000	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Arthur	$4,000	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Arthur	$3,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Arthur	$3,000	no account filed
July 2001	Hail	Arthur	$3,000	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$2,000	no account filed
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$1,000	A large elm tree was blown down by thunderstorm winds.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$1,000	Four inch diameter tree limbs were broken off.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$1,000	Numerous large tree branches were blown down by thunderstorm winds.
May 2004	Hail	Arthur	$1,000	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Arthur	$1,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Arthur	$1,000	no account filed
May 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	$500	Large tree down
July 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Strong winds downed a tree onto a house in Arthur, via social media.
September 2021	Hail	Arthur	-	Time was estimated by radar.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Thunderstorm wind gust of 60 mph reported at this location.
May 2021	Hail	Arthur	-	Delayed report. Time estimated by radar.
May 2021	Hail	Arthur	-	Quarter sized hail reported at this location.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Mesonet station reported a 64 MPH wind gust southeast of Arthur.
May 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Thunderstorm wind gust estimated at 60 mph, reported at this location.
September 2021	Hail	Arthur	-	Time was estimated by radar.
June 2020	Hail	Arthur	-	Hail damaged a green house roof.
July 2020	Hail	Arthur	-	Public reported half dollar size hail south of Arthur.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	No details.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	A cement block building with wooden roof was destroyed, and a barn door was ripped off. There were also several tree branches snapped off.
August 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Winds were estimated at 60 mph.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	No damage reported.
August 2018	Hail	Arthur	-	Hail accumulated at the property.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Wind gusts estimated at 60 MPH at this location.
March 2016	Hail	Arthur	-	Hail covered the ground at this location.
September 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Estimated wind speeds of 60 mph.
July 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts, estimated at 60 MPH, lasted 15 minutes.
August 2012	Lightning	Arthur	-	A lightning strike ignited the McKeage wildfire. The fire burned an estimated 7,500 acres of grassland and timber.
August 2012	Hail	Arthur	-	Rainfall of 0.90 inches fell at location.
August 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Arthur	-	Small branches down at location with half-inch size hail.

Every storm recorded in Arthur 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

1 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
	First Arthur County Courthouse and Jail	0.1 miles	1990

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 79001434 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Arthur County	All 2 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.