Built in 1928 (Renaissance Revival architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
From the record
“The McPherson County Courthouse, located on South Dakota Highway 10 in Leola, South Dakota, was built in 1928. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.”
Wikipedia article McPherson County Courthouse (South Dakota), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 2 National Register listings published here for McPherson County · listed in 1986 · category: Building · built in 1928, Renaissance Revival architecture, by Buechner & Orth.
National Register reference number. 86003020 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
5 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 5 fires within 5 miles of McPherson County Courthouse
between 2015 and 2017, burning about 6 acres in total. 1 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
3
Debris and open burning
1
Natural
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
1 working within 5 miles of McPherson County Courthouse: 1 producer.
All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Leola, the town this property stands in, in 85 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 57 hail, 18 thunderstorm wind, 7 tornado, 2 flash flood.
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.
A machine shed was destroyed, a stave silo partially destroyed, farm equipment was displaced, machine shed doors pushed in, multiple grain bins dented and widespread tree damage occurred.
Estimated 80 mph winds caused damage along the south side of Leola including an unroofed barn, tipped grain bins, downed tree branches, tipped camper, and destroyed pole barn. Debris was sent flying into the home of a local resident with no injuries reported.
Golfball to tennis ball size hail broke many windows out of several buildings along with severely damaging the siding on the house. Also, the roofs were damaged with holes in the roof of the barn.
A tornado occurred southwest of Leola and damaged every building on a farm. The garage walls collapsed and several pieces of farm equipment were flipped over. Nearly all of the windows were broken in the house. The tornado tipped over the propane tank, central air unit and the satellite dish. Some debris created some holes in the roof and sides of the house. Approximately 50 bales of hay were torn apart. A car was also extensively damaged. Path length and width were estimated.
Winds gusting to around 70 mph downed several trees in Leola along with many large tree branches. The high winds also snapped a wooden street sign off.
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.
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.
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