W. T. Thorne Building

Built in 1891 (Renaissance Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

From the record

“Thorne Building, also known as Hostetler's Opera House, is a historic three-story building in Minden, Nebraska. Thorne, and designed in the Renaissance Revival architectural style.”
Wikipedia article W. T. Thorne Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Kearney County · listed in 1985 · category: Building · built in 1891, Renaissance 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. Thorne, W. T., Building - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 5th St., Minden, 68959
When was it listed? September 1985
Category. building
District. District 6
When was it built? 1891
Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 85002139 - 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

4 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of W. T. Thorne Building between 2003 and 2017, burning about 131 acres in total. None 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
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Debris and open burning	2

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
29 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
23 August 2003	Debris and open burning	30 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
17 March 2017	Equipment and vehicle use	40 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
16 March 2009	Debris and open burning	60 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Kearney County

Storms near this property

60 of 79 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Minden, the town this property stands in, in 79 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 35 hail, 33 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 2 funnel cloud. 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 2002	Hail	Minden	$20,000,000	no account filed
June 2002	Hail	Minden	$5,000,000	no account filed
July 2024	Tornado (EF1)	Minden	$500,000	This tornado touched down in the area of the golf course, then moved southeast through the northeast part of town, just south of the airport. The ground circulation was likely small and somewhat disorganized at this stage, as most of the damage in town was to trees. The tornado grew in intensity on the northeast outskirts of town, where a couple metal buildings sustained roof and overhead door damage. The tornado appeared to track along the highway northeast of town before crossing into a corn field and overturning pivots. Based on storm chaser video, this is where the condensation funnel was largest and most obvious. The end of the track between 33 Road and 34 Road was confirmed by drone video submitted to the NWS. The estimated peak wind gust of 90 MPH and EF1 rating is based on the tree damage at the golf course and the damage to the metal buildings on the edge of town. The tornado width of 200 yards is estimated based on observed damage and storm chaser video. Extensive tree damage was noted further south across Minden, and appears to be the result of an intense rear flank downdraft surge of straight-line wind.
May 2024	Tornado (EF0)	Minden	$350,000	This EF0 rated tornado damaged a handful of irrigation pivots and trees along its over eight mile path. The peak wind speed was estimated to be 85 MPH, based upon tree damage near the middle of the path. This tornado was also noted by a drop in the WSR-88D correlation coefficient product. The drop coincides with the path, but damage was very limited. One possible theory is the lower correlation coefficient shown on radar was caused by corn stalks lifted into the air from several no-till fields.
April 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$250,000	Report via broadcast media of tree damage across Minden, with some large limbed downed. Power line and pivot damage was reported just northeast of town.
June 2024	Hail	Minden	$250,000	Hail ranging in size from quarters up to two inches in diameter was reported along and within a few miles on each side of this path.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$250,000	Wind gusts estimated to be as high as 80 MPH resulted in widespread tree damage across the southern half of Minden. Small and large tree limbs were snapped, tree trunks were snapped, and a few trees were uprooted.
October 2023	Tornado (EF1)	Minden	$225,000	This tornado was the strongest and longest of the day, touching down in Franklin County and crossing into Kearney County. This EF1 rated tornado with estimated peak winds of 90 MPH was on the ground for just over six miles and for about 10 minutes. Early on, the damage path was primarily found via corn stalks in fence and power\|lines. Eventually the tornado overturned two pivots before reaching a farmstead near Highway 10 about eight miles south of Minden. Most structural damage was at the farmstead, including part of garage wall pushed from its foundation, damage to windows and trees and the top torn from a grain bin. The tornado crossed\|the highway and gradually dissipated. The EF1 rating and subsequent 90 MPH wind speed estimate was based upon the damage to the garage, grain bin and tree damage at the farmstead.
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$150,000	no account filed
May 2005	Hail	Minden	$100,000	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$100,000	no account filed
June 2018	Hail	Minden	$50,000	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	Minden	$30,000	no account filed
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$25,000	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$25,000	no account filed
August 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$25,000	no account filed
July 1997	Hail	Minden	$25,000	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Minden	$20,000	Penny to golf ball size hail was reported in Minden.
July 2006	Hail	Minden	$20,000	no account filed
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$15,000	Wind gusts estimated to be near 65 MPH resulted in multiple downed tree branches in Minden.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$15,000	no account filed
June 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$15,000	no account filed
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	$10,000	Two large trees limbs of 10 to 15 inches in diameter were downed in town.
May 2007	Flash Flood	Minden	$10,000	no account filed
April 2007	Flood	Minden	$10,000	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Minden	$10,000	no account filed
August 1999	Hail	Minden	$10,000	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Minden	$5,000	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Minden	$5,000	no account filed
August 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 62 MPH was measured by a mesonet located four miles west-southwest of Minden.
April 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 66 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles west-southwest of Minden.
April 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located in Minden.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 69 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located one mile south-southeast of Minden.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH, blowing dust resulted in lowered visibility.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH resulted in scattered downed tree limbs in Minden, the largest being up to six inches in diameter.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 72 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles west-southwest of Minden.
September 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles west-southwest of Minden.
April 2022	Hail	Minden	-	Hail to up the size of ping pong balls was reported, accompanied by wind gust measured as high as 70 MPH.
April 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be between near 75 MPH in the Minden area, as ping pong ball size fell. Just southwest of Minden, about one to three miles, 12 pivots were overturned. Tree damage was reported in Minden, including a large evergreen tree that was uprooted. A wind gust of 70 MPH was also measured by a mesonet station located three miles east-northeast of Heartwell.
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A wind gust of 61 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located in Minden.
July 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH and were accompanied by pea to dime size hail.
July 2020	Hail	Minden	-	Quarter to ping pong ball size hail was reported.
April 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH accompanied hail up to 2 inches in diameter.
July 2017	Heavy Rain	Minden	-	A storm total rainfall amount of 3.91 inches was measured.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	A few trees were knocked over, causing an intersection in town to be blocked.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gusts estimated at 75 mph.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Wind gust estimated at 60 mph.
June 2005	Hail	Minden	-	Winds gusts to 60 mph accompanied the hail.
April 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Thunderstorm winds knocked down several tree limbs.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Minden	-	Thunderstorm winds gusted to 80 mph at Heartwell and downed power lines in Minden.
May 2024	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
July 2024	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
May 2023	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
August 2022	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
May 2021	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
May 2019	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
September 2010	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Minden	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kearney 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
	Kearney County Courthouse	under 500 feet	1990
	US Post Office-Minden	under 500 feet	1992

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 85002139 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kearney 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.