Saline County Courthouse

Built in 1927 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

From the record

“The Saline County Courthouse is a historic three-story building in Wilber, Nebraska, and the courthouse of Saline County, Nebraska. It is the second county courthouse built in Wilber; the first courthouse was built in 1878.”
Wikipedia article Saline County Courthouse (Nebraska), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 17 National Register listings published here for Saline County · listed in 1990 · category: District · built in 1927, Neoclassical 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 4 objectss, 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 215 S. Court, Wilber, 68465
When was it listed? July 1990
Category. district
Also known as. County Courthouses of Nebraska MPS
Precinct. Wilber precinct
When was it built? 1927
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 90000967 - 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 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Saline County Courthouse between 2011 and 2014, 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
Smoking	1
Debris and open burning	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
31 March 2014	Smoking	25 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named
11 November 2011	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Nebraska Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Saline County

Storms near this property

60 of 76 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wilber, the town this property stands in, in 76 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 46 hail, 24 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 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
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	$125,000	Thunderstorm wind gusts were measured at 66 mph by emergency management in Wilber. The winds destroyed a machine shed northeast of Wilber and caused some equipment damage at the Wilber-Claytonia High School.
August 2006	Flash Flood	Wilber	$10,000	Heavy rains produced flash flooding and washouts across several county roads southwest of Wilber.
May 2011	Flood	Wilber	$5,000	Rainfall of 3 to 4 inches during the evening and overnight hours of 5/19 and 5/20 over Saline county and upstream. This caused the Big Blue River to flood farmland and county roads around the Crete area. The river at Crete crested just under 20.5 feet in the morning of 5/22, flood stage is 18 feet.
May 2007	Flash Flood	Wilber	$5,000	Rainfall of another inch or two produced flash flooding of streets in the Wilber area. The rainfall was on top of the 2 to 4 inches which fell the previous day.
March 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	$5,000	Thunderstorm winds blew a machine shed over near Wilber.
April 2006	Lightning	Wilber	$5,000	Lightning struck a tree next to a home west of Wilber. The tree went through a living room window and split a couch in half.
April 2024	Funnel Cloud	Wilber	-	A county official over NAWAS and law enforcement in Saline County reported a funnel cloud 1 mile northwest of Wilber, Nebraska. This funnel cloud was reported to have lasted until 4 miles NNE of Wilber.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Straight-line winds that impacted the town of Wilbur just after 2 AM the morning of 5/24 resulted in shingles torn off of a roof and widespread tree damage in the town.
June 2020	Hail	Wilber	-	A utility company reported hail up to the size of quarters.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Two homes had damage from intense thunderstorm winds. One home had a large portion of it's roof removed by the intense winds and blown 150 yards downstream.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	A 64 mph wind gust was measured at Wilber.
June 2014	Hail	Wilber	-	The hail broke windows, and put holes in the siding on many homes in the town.
October 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	A measured wind gust to 65 mph was recorded in Wilber. The wind downed large tree branches in the city of Wilber. The wind also downed power poles to the west of Wilber that resulted in many rural electrical customers in Saline County to lose power.
October 2013	Hail	Wilber	-	Several reports of large hail, some very large, were received from about 6 miles northeast of Western to in and around Wilber. Emergency management reported hail up to 2 inches in diameter from Wilber to near 6 miles west of Wilber, while a storm chaser reported hail to 2.75 inches in diameter to the northeast of Western to just north of Wilber.
May 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 60 mph downed a few large tree limbs onto a few streets in the Wilber area.
May 2011	Hail	Wilber	-	The hail lasted several minutes and just followed thunderstorm wind gusts that were estimated at around 70 mph.
August 2011	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter fell around and just southeast of Wilber.
May 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	A spotter in the Wilber area estimated that thunderstorm wind gusts approached 70 mph. The winds were accompanied by nickel-size hail.
August 2010	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail up to half dollar-size fell in the Wilber area causing minor damage to several vehicles and a few roofs.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at over 60 mph downed large tree limbs and power lines in the area. The downed tree limbs closed several streets and knocked the power out for about 15 minutes.
June 2010	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail up to nickel-size fell for several minutes around the Wilber area.
June 2010	Heavy Rain	Wilber	-	Rainfall of 1.5 to 2 inches fell in an hour or less and caused some minor street flooding in town.
September 2010	Hail	Wilber	-	Golf ball-size hail was reported in the Wilber area.
June 2009	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail up to nickel size fell for at least 15 minutes in the area.
August 2009	Hail	Wilber	-	Quarter to golf ball-size hail was reported from a few miles south of Wilber into town. The hail broke some windows on vehicles in the area.
August 2009	Hail	Wilber	-	From another thunderstorm that developed on the west side of the storms that dropped hail up to golf ball size in and just south of Wilber about 15 minutes earlier.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm winds estimated at 65 to 70 mph caused sporadic power outages near Wilber when the power pole a transformer was on snapped. Several large limbs were also downed in town.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm winds estimated at over 60 mph downed large trees near Wilber and plastered buildings with leaves.
June 2008	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail up to quarter size fell for several minutes in the Wilber area.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 to 70 mph broke large tree limbs in town and damaged several rural outbuildings.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	A long door on rollers at a grainery were blown off by thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph.
March 2006	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail up to nickel size fell for a few minutes and was accompanied by strong winds.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Emergency management recorded 69 mph winds associated with a thunderstorm. The wind was accompanied by hail a little over 1 inch in diameter and did damage to 30 homes in the area.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm winds caused damage to parts of Wilber including knocking the power out and forcing the evacuation of the EOC. The winds were probably around 70 mph and were possibly due to the RFD of a large tornado that was passing just to the south of town around that time.
September 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 60 mph downed numerous tree limbs in town.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at around 70 mph downed numerous trees and large tree branches from Wilber to 2 miles northwest through 1 mile northeast of town. The Wilber Czech Cemetery had 25 trees that were either blown over or suffered significant limb damage. Sporadic power outages were also reported near town. Some minor street flooding also was reported as nearly 2 inches of rain accompanied the strong winds.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Emergency management in Wilber measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 66 mph on home weather equipment. This was from a second round of thunderstorms that hit town within around a 15 minute period.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Emergency management estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 to 65 mph hit from 10 miles west of Wilber into the Wilber area. The winds snapped off a stop sign and destroyed a street light in Wilber and also caused power outages.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	A supercell thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at close to 70 mph from south of Wilber into the De Witt area. The winds broke large tree limbs and even downed a few trees.
August 2001	Hail	Wilber	-	From the same storm that produced the wind damage.
September 2001	Hail	Wilber	-	Hail from golfball size hail up to 3 inches in diameter fell from 2 miles west of Wilber into Wilber.
May 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	Trees and large branches downed.
May 2017	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
April 2017	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
September 2015	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
September 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Wilber	-	no account filed
July 2014	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
June 2014	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
November 2013	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
May 2010	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
May 2007	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
March 2006	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
June 2006	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
April 2005	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
June 2005	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed
March 2004	Hail	Wilber	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saline 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

3 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Mann-Zwonecek House	0.1 miles	1978
Hotel Wilber	0.2 miles	1978
Sokol Pavilion	0.2 miles	1998

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 90000967 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Saline County	All 17 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.