U.S. Post Office and Federal Building

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

From the record

“The United States Post Office and Federal Building is a post office building in La Grande, Oregon. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article United States Post Office and Federal Building (La Grande, Oregon), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 21 National Register listings published here for Union 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. 1010 Adams St., La Grande, 97850
When was it listed? January 1979
Category. building
Census division. La Grande
National Register reference number. 79002149 - 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

56 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 56 fires within 5 miles of U.S. Post Office and Federal Building between 1992 and 2020, burning about 45 acres in total. 12 started naturally. 1 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
Recreation and ceremony	19
Natural	12
Debris and open burning	8
Smoking	4
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Railroad operations and maintenance	1
Arson/incendiarism	1
Fireworks	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
7 September 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	3.5 acres	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	ROBS HILL
3 September 1995	Natural	under an acre	LaGrande District	PEACH CREEK I
2 September 2020	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	LaGrande District	PREDATOR
2 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	LaGrande District	GLASS HILL
10 September 2017	Natural	under an acre	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	MILL CREEK
1 September 1995	Smoking	under an acre	LaGrande District	HUNTER
5 August 2001	Debris and open burning	under an acre	LaGrande District	TRASH
31 August 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	LaGrande District	DEALS CANYON

Every fire recorded in Union County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 21 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 21 workings within 5 miles of U.S. Post Office and Federal Building: 11 past producers, 8 producers, 2 occurrences. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Platinum. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
La Grande	PGE	Occurrence
La Grande Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction, Platinum	Occurrence	Sand and Gravel
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
La Grande Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Basalt Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Dry Beaver	Stone	Past Producer
Dry Beaver Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Union County

Storms near this property

32 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names La Grande, the town this property stands in, in 32 storm reports between 1997 and 2022: 11 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 lightning, 3 heavy rain. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	1 hurt, $300,000	no account filed
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	$30,000	Strong winds associated with a thunderstorm knocked a ponderosa pine tree onto a four-year-old manufactured home. Two large tree limbs punched through a bedroom ceiling next to a bed, the bathroom, and a back TV room. The property damage from this event is estimated at $30,000.
August 2001	Lightning	La Grande	$20,000	Lightning struck a house in La Grande, completely blowing out all the electrical and telephone outlets.
July 2004	Flash Flood	La Grande	$5,000	no account filed
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	$2,000	A thunderstorm moved northeast through LaGrande toppling trees, snapping limbs, and downing power lines. Hail and heavy rainfall with the storm dropped visibility to near zero, causing minor street flooding and a bicycle-vehicle accident which injured bicycle rider. A baseball game in the Babe Ruth State Tournament was stopped for two hours.
August 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	$1,000	A thunderstorm produced pea sized hail, blew down trees, and knocked out power to residents.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	$50	Two inch diameter tree limbs downed.
August 2022	Hail	La Grande	-	A social media report from Facebook report from La Grande, OR indicated that hailstones larger than a quarter and up to the size of 1.5 inches had fallen around 2:50pm on the 11th. Further upstream, a trained spotter 1 mile southeast of Imbler, OR reported hailstones up to 1.25 inches. A measured wind gust to 60 mph occurred at the La Grande Airport.
July 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	-	Four inch and larger diameter tree branches down at the baseball field in La Grande due to thunderstorm winds.
July 2012	Hail	La Grande	-	Dime to golfball sized hail reported.
June 2011	Heavy Rain	La Grande	-	Rainfall of 1.61 inches fell in 1.5 hours.
June 2010	Hail	La Grande	-	Hail accompanied by 40-50 mph winds. Spotter also observed a wall cloud about 5 miles south of LaGrande.
August 2006	Lightning	La Grande	-	A power pole was struck and 120 residents lost power for 35 minutes.
May 2004	Heavy Rain	La Grande	-	A portion of Morgan Lake Road washed out as excess run-off caused the shoulder to drop away, bending the guard rail out from the road. The property damage from this event is estimated at $5,000.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	-	Numerous trees were reported down north and west of La Grande.
July 2002	Hail	La Grande	-	In addition to the hail, strong wind gusts caused numerous minor power outages in the Grande Ronde Valley according to Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative.
September 1998	Lightning	La Grande	-	Lightning truck a tree in the Hillcrest Cemetery. The bolt cut all the bark off one side of the tree in an eight inch strip from the top of the tree to the ground. The strip of bark and wood landed on the ground at a right angle. Some pieces of bark and wood came to rest 100 feet away.
May 1998	Hail	La Grande	-	Hail up to 1 1/4 inches fell in the La Grande area. Up to 0.52 inches of rain fell in 20 minutes. Hail was still on the ground two hours later along a seven mile stretch of I-84 west of La Grande.
June 1998	Flash Flood	La Grande	-	A sudden downpour caused flooding in southeast La Grande. Two creeks overflowed their banks closing several streets for nearly three hours. At least two houses had flood damage. Sand bags were used to try to keep water away from houses.
July 1998	Heavy Rain	La Grande	-	Up to 1.50 inches of rain fell in 20 minutes. 0.25 inches of rain fell in only two minutes. Wind gusts to 50 mph were also reported. The result was a flooded underpass and several inches of water flowing along La Grande streets. Eight hundred to a thousand residents had power outages for several hours. The storm nearly wiped out crops in a 1 1/2 to 2 mile wide by 6 to 7 mile long strip between Island City and Cove.
July 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	-	A tree limb blown into a power substation tripped a braker leaving 1,950 customers without power for just over an hour.
June 2019	Hail	La Grande	-	no account filed
May 2015	Hail	La Grande	-	no account filed
May 2015	Hail	La Grande	-	no account filed
May 2015	Funnel Cloud	La Grande	-	no account filed
July 2012	Funnel Cloud	La Grande	-	no account filed
July 2012	Hail	La Grande	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	La Grande	-	no account filed
May 2006	Hail	La Grande	-	no account filed
September 2004	Lightning	La Grande	-	no account filed
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	La Grande	-	no account filed
July 2004	Funnel Cloud	La Grande	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Union 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

6 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
Liberty Theater	under 500 feet	1999
Foley Building	under 500 feet	1985
La Grande Commercial Historic District	0.2 miles	2001
Roesch Building	0.2 miles	1996
Slater Building	0.2 miles	1983
John Anthony House	0.2 miles	1988

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 79002149 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Union County	All 21 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.