Photograph by PlumbTN at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Benton County Courthouse
Built in 1926 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
From the record
“The Benton County Courthouse is a Neoclassical Revival courthouse located in Prosser, Washington, and serving Benton County. The building was constructed in 1926 to serve as a permanent courthouse in Benton County.”
Wikipedia article Benton County Courthouse (Washington), CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 7 National Register listings published here for Benton County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1926, Neoclassical architecture.
National Register reference number.76001869- 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
4 since 1998
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Benton County Courthouse
between 1998 and 2020, burning about 9,675 acres in total. None 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
3
Arson/incendiarism
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
20 workings within 5 miles of Benton County Courthouse: 16 past producers, 3 occurrences, 1 prospect.
None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Pumice, Perlite. 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
Prosser, the town this property stands in, in 11 storm reports between 2002 and 2020: 3 flood, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 wildfire.
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.
In Benton County, there was minor flooding at the RV park along the river at Benton City and through the rural areas of West Richland. At the higher levels, some water from the river flows through a low bank area and moves overland through a rural subdivision and then rejoins the main river channel. Homes are built up so water does not enter them, but there was 60,000 dollars in damages to roads and outbuildings.
Swirling winds from a thunderstorm gust front picked up lawn furniture which flew 500 feet, crashed into, and broke the back window of a car traveling along Byron Road west of Prosser. Cushions from the furniture traveled 300-400 yards across the Yakima River. The swirling winds were about 5 yards wide and traveled 250 yards to the north and then dissipated in trees north of the Yakima River.
The Yakima River at Kiona crested at 15.5 feet on May 18th, which was 2.5 feet above flood stage. The flooding damaged several businesses in Prosser and farmland, roads, businesses, and residential areas from Prosser to Richland, including the Beach RV Park in Benton City and the West Richland Golf Course.
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
2 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.