Lawrence Opera House

Built in 1901. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“The Lawrence Opera House is a historic two-story commercial building in Lawrence, Nebraska. It was built in 1901 and operated until around 1917 gradually declining due to the advent of Automobiles allowing for people to travel further faster.”
Wikipedia article Lawrence Opera House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 8 National Register listings published here for Nuckolls County · listed in 1988 · category: Building · built in 1901.

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. Second and Calvert Sts., Lawrence, 68957
When was it listed? September 1988
Category. building
Also known as. Opera House Buildings in Nebraska 1867-1917 MPS
Precinct. Victor precinct
When was it built? 1901
National Register reference number. 88000933 - 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

42 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 42 fires within 5 miles of Lawrence Opera House between 2005 and 2020, burning about 266 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
Debris and open burning	19
Equipment and vehicle use	11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	8
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Recreation and ceremony	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
28 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
20 September 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	15 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
19 September 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	20 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
11 September 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
9 August 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
24 July 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
30 June 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
27 June 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Nuckolls County

Storms near this property

42 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lawrence, the town this property stands in, in 42 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 19 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 8 heavy rain, 1 lightning. 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 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	$1,400,000	no account filed
August 2020	Hail	Lawrence	$100,000	no account filed
June 2017	Hail	Lawrence	$75,000	no account filed
August 2023	Hail	Lawrence	$50,000	no account filed
August 2023	Hail	Lawrence	$50,000	no account filed
August 2021	Hail	Lawrence	$50,000	no account filed
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	$50,000	no account filed
May 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	$50,000	no account filed
June 1997	Lightning	Lawrence	$35,000	no account filed
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	$30,000	no account filed
May 2024	Tornado (EF0)	Lawrence	$25,000	This tornado danced its way along an approximately six mile path in rural eastern Webster County and ended in far western Nuckolls County. It started just west of Highway 78 between 5-6 miles north of Guide Rock. The worst damage along its path occurred at a nearby farmstead, where there was widespread tree damage and minor damage to the home. The tornado crossed the highway and sporadically damaged some trees for the next couple of miles. The tornado eventually grazed another farmstead and damaged a couple areas of cedar trees. A local resident noted fence damage and debris in a fence north of the farmstead. The tornado likely ended at or near a farmstead in far western Nuckolls County where some tree damage and outbuilding damage occurred. The estimated peak wind was 85 MPH.
August 2023	Hail	Lawrence	$25,000	no account filed
May 2011	Flood	Lawrence	$15,000	Storm total rainfall accumulations of 2 to 5 inches were reported across the area. Water covered a few county roads, especially in the Lawrence area. Lowland flooding was also reported.
June 2007	Hail	Lawrence	$10,000	no account filed
July 2006	Hail	Lawrence	$10,000	no account filed
June 2019	Flash Flood	Lawrence	$5,000	Flash flooding occurred four miles west of Nelson where a culvert had washed out, and also US Highway 136 was under water five miles east-northeast of Guide Rock.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	$1,000	Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH knocked down some tree limbs of at least a few inches in diameter.
July 2022	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	Heavy rain fell across mainly northwestern and far east-central portions of Nuckolls County, with the majority occurring between 10 PM and 2 AM. The highest measured amount was 3.59 inches, by a CoCoRaHS observer located in Lawrence. Amounts of 3-4 inches were reported elsewhere in the Lawrence area, as well as near Ruskin.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	A wind gust of 68 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located two miles east of Lawrence.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH were accompanied by pea size hail.
July 2017	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	A storm total rainfall amount of 3.35 inches was measured.
April 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	A large tree limb was downed in town.
June 2015	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	A 24-hour rainfall total of 3.86...most of which fell during the evening of the 4th into the early morning of the 5th. Also in Nuckolls County, 3.88 was reported 3 miles northwest of Oak. Two-day rainfall totals of 3-7 were common within much of Adams, Clay, Fillmore, Nuckolls, Thayer, southern Hall, southern Hamilton and southern York counties, resulting in significant flooding across parts of the area.
October 2013	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	A rainfall total of 4.29 inches occurred.
June 2012	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	Rain total of 4.66 inches for the past 24 hours. Report comes from the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network. The rain began during the late afternoon on June 14th, with the last round of rain ending during the early morning hours of June 15th.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	A 70 mph wind gust was reported by the Lawrence Fire Department.
June 2012	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	Rain total of 3.16 inches for the past 24 hours. Report comes from the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network. The rain began during the late afternoon on June 14th, with the last round of rain ending during the early morning hours of June 15th.
June 2012	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	Rain total of 4.40 inches for the past 24 hours. Report comes from the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network. The rain began during the late afternoon on June 14th, with the last round of rain ending during the early morning hours of June 15th.
May 2011	Heavy Rain	Lawrence	-	Storm total rainfall of 3.91 inches was reported by a NeRAIN observer.
April 2023	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
August 2023	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
May 2021	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
June 2019	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
April 2019	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
September 2015	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
May 2008	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	no account filed
August 2007	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
June 2001	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Lawrence	-	no account filed
May 1993	Hail	Lawrence	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Nuckolls 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 88000933 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Nuckolls County	All 8 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.