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Photograph of Thurston County Courthouse
Photograph by Ammodramus, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Thurston County Courthouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

From the record

One of 5 National Register listings published here for Thurston County · listed in 1990 · category: Building.

Sources: 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. Main St. between 5th and 6th Sts., Pender, 68047
  • When was it listed? January 1990
  • Category. building
  • Also known as. County Courthouses of Nebraska MPS
  • Township. Pender township
  • Architectural style. Victorian architecture
  • National Register reference number. 89002209 - 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

2 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Thurston County Courthouse between 2002 and 2018, burning about 27 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 use1
Smoking1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 June 2002Smoking17 acresWinnebago AgencyA1302052
29 April 2018Equipment and vehicle use10 acresWinnebago AgencyBIA #013-18

Every fire recorded in Thurston County

Storms near this property

60 of 68 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pender, the town this property stands in, in 68 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 39 hail, 22 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1993Tornado (F1)Pender$500,000A tornado touched down north of Pender where it blew down a windmill, damaged a barn and garage, destroyed a small building and uprooted trees. The tornado then moved east where it hit another farm. There it destroyed six large buildings and damaged six others. Many trees were blown down.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindPender$50,000A double wide mobile home was damaged in Emerson. The roof was taken off of the mobile home by strong thunderstorm winds.
August 1993Thunderstorm WindPender$50,000Two portable hog sheds were blown away, a metal roof was blown off of a shed and shingles were blown off of a house 2.50 miles west of Pender. A small building and trees were blown down at the golf course.
June 2008Flash FloodPender$5,000Heavy rain during the evening and overnight hours of June 7th and 8th caused flash flooding around the Jct of Highways 9 and 16 near Pender. The water caused debris to be washed onto the road and bridge and prompted its closure for a while. Damage was mainly reserved to debris cleanup.
August 2007Flash FloodPender$1,000Heavy rain caused flash flooding across the jct of Highways 9 and 16 near Pender.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindPender-Emergency management report of heavy rain and wind gusts of 50-60 mph.
June 2020Thunderstorm WindPender-Emergency manager reported large tree limbs down in Pender.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindPender-Emergency manager reported large tree limbs down in Pender.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindPender-Emergency Manager reported a large old tree blown down.
June 2017HailPender-One inch hail reported near Pender.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindPender-Several reports of damage in and around the Pender area. The damage included trees, barns, and to the local city park. The emergency manager estimated winds from 60 to 70 mph.
May 2012HailPender-Hail up to half dollar-size fell for around 15 minutes east of Pender from a slow moving thunderstorm which also dropped isolated very heavy rainfall.
May 2012Heavy RainPender-Rainfall that doppler radar estimated approached 4 inches fell across a very small area east southeast of Pender. The heavy rain produced some field flooding which briefly flowed across a few roads.
April 2012Flash FloodPender-Heavy rain caused flash flooding across Highway 9 south of Pender.
March 2011HailPender-Hail up to golf ball-size was reported in Pender by emergency management. The hail blanketed the ground and caused minor damage to some vehicles.
September 2010HailPender-Nickel to quarter-size hail was reported in the Pender area with a few hailstones up to golf ball-size.
July 2009Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm winds were estimated at 60 mph by emergency management from around 5 miles to 7 miles east of Pender. The winds were accompanied by penny-size hail.
July 2009HailPender-The hail was accompanied by wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindPender-A tree was downed in the Pender area by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated at around 60 mph in the Pender area. The winds preceded hail, which reached nickel-size, that fell from the storm by about 20 minutes.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph caused some minor damage to cattle sheds northwest of Pender.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm winds estimated at over 60 mph downed multiple trees in town and snapped a sign off.
June 2005HailPender-Hail over 4 inches in diameter was reported in town.
October 2005Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph by a trained weather spotter in Pender.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindPender-A trained spotter reported thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 70 mph. The winds were accompanied by golfball size hail.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 60 mph downed some large tree limbs and power lines in town. A house northeast of town received major damage when a tree fell on it.
June 2003Flash FloodPender-Heavy rainfall caused flash flooding of streets and small creeks in and near Pender with some roads briefly closed. Radar estimated that rainfall totals around Pender were in the 3 to 5 inch range over a several hour period during the late evening hours of June 9th.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm winds estimated at over 60 mph downed large tree branches causing vehicle and minor house damage from Pender to Thurston.
June 2003HailPender-The large hail was accompanied by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
April 2002Thunderstorm WindPender-The Emergency Manager for Thurston county reported a thunderstorm wind gust estimated at around 60 mph. A storm chaser in the area estimated the winds around 70 mph as he tried to outdrive the gust.
April 2002Thunderstorm WindPender-A ham radio operator estimated a thunderstorm wind gust of 65 mph in Pender. This was the second storm that produced winds estimated at over 60 mph that night around Pender.
July 2000Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm wind gusts broke off some 10 inch diameter tree branches.
June 1999Flash FloodPender-Highway 9 just south of Pender flooded.
April 1994Thunderstorm WindPender-Thunderstorm winds knocked out electrical power and took the roof off of a home.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindPender-A thunderstorm caused a damage path 8 to 10 miles wide from east of Emerson to near Walthill. Golf ball-size hail was up to 12 inches deep in some areas. Windows were broken, roof were damaged, large trees were snapped off, and livestock was injured. Serious damage occurred near Walthill.
June 2017HailPender-no account filed
June 2017HailPender-no account filed
May 2016HailPender-no account filed
July 2016HailPender-no account filed
September 2015HailPender-no account filed
June 2014HailPender-no account filed
June 2014HailPender-no account filed
June 2014HailPender-no account filed
May 2012HailPender-no account filed
May 2012HailPender-no account filed
June 2009HailPender-no account filed
August 2008HailPender-no account filed
July 2008HailPender-no account filed
July 2008HailPender-no account filed
October 2007HailPender-no account filed
July 2005HailPender-no account filed
June 2005HailPender-no account filed
April 2004HailPender-no account filed
April 2004HailPender-no account filed
May 2004HailPender-no account filed
May 2004HailPender-no account filed
June 2004HailPender-no account filed
May 2004HailPender-no account filed
July 2003HailPender-no account filed
July 2003HailPender-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Thurston 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 PropertyDistance Listed
First Thurston County Courthouseunder 500 feet1990

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 89002209 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Thurston CountyAll 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.
  • 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.