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Photograph of William O. Douglas Federal Building
Photograph by Jeffrey H. Reynolds, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

U. S. Post Office and Courthouse

Built in 1912. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

From the record

“Douglas Federal Building is a historic post office, courthouse, and federal office building located at Yakima in Yakima County, Washington. It is a courthouse for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.”

Wikipedia article William O. Douglas Federal Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 73 National Register listings published here for Yakima County · listed in 1979 · category: Building · built in 1912, by James Knox Taylor.

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 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 25 S. 3rd St, Yakima, 98901
  • When was it listed? November 1979
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Yakima
  • When was it built? 1912
  • Architect. James Knox Taylor
  • National Register reference number. 79002568 - 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

42 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 42 fires within 5 miles of U. S. Post Office and Courthouse between 1997 and 2020, burning about 3,362 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
Fireworks30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Debris and open burning2
Recreation and ceremony2
Arson/incendiarism1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Other causes1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
19 September 2012Arson/incendiarism191 acresYakama AgencyFRUIT STAND
1 September 1997Misuse of fire by a minor20 acresYakama AgencyAHTANUM RG
8 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined400 acresWashington State Fire Marshal's OfficeCOYOTE CREEK
7 July 2009Fireworksunder an acreYakama Agency16TH AND GILBERT
5 July 2015Fireworksunder an acreYakama Agency16TH / GILBERT
5 July 2014Fireworksunder an acreYakama AgencyGILBERT 2
5 July 2000Fireworksunder an acreYakama AgencyGRAVEY
4 July 2017Fireworksunder an acreYakama AgencyGILBERT # 3

Every fire recorded in Yakima County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 34 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 34 workings within 5 miles of U. S. Post Office and Courthouse: 27 past producers, 5 occurrences, 1 prospect, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Pumice, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
SelahSilicaOccurrence
Willow Springs No. 3Gold, SilverProspect
YakimaGemstoneOccurrence
KaiserClayPast Producer
YakimaClayPast Producer
Selah No. 1PumiceOccurrence
Selah No. 2PumiceOccurrence
State QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Union Gap QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
WenasPumiceOccurrence

Every working recorded in Yakima County

Storms near this property

12 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Yakima, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 1999 and 2010: 3 lightning, 3 flash flood, 3 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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
May 2006LightningYakima$35,000Lightning struck a weather vane on top of a barn and sparked a fire that destroyed the barn roof.
August 1999Thunderstorm WindYakima$5,000Strong winds from thunderstorms blew down around 100 trees along Highway 410 one mile west of the junction with Highway 12. Power lines were also downed. At the same time high winds peeled back a metal roof 9 miles west of the Highway 12 intersection.
May 2005Flash FloodYakima$3,000no account filed
August 2003Thunderstorm WindYakima$2,000Strong winds associated with a thunderstorm knocked down several trees, and knocked out power to about 750 customers. A weather spotter five miles east of Yakima reported a wind gust to 55 MPH at 4:59 PM PST. The Yakima ASOS at the Yakima airport reported a peak wind gust to 53 MPH at 4:54 PM PST. The property damage from this event is estimated at $2,000.
July 2010HailYakima-Observer reported 1/2 to 3/4 inch hail.
July 2010HailYakima-Yakima Sheriff Dispatch reported 1 inch diameter hail.
May 2004Flash FloodYakima-A weather spotter reported .50 inches of rain in 30 minutes in Yakima from a nearly stationary storm. This resulted in deep water on 56th Avenue and Summitview in Yakima, with cars stalling out and forcing a lane closure. During the storm, 60 Pacific Power customers lost electricity.
June 2002LightningYakima-Lightning knocked out power to 4,000 customers in Yakima. The storms produced hail and flooding on some intersections.
August 1999LightningYakima-Lightning struck a power substation west of the Central Washington fairgrounds early in the morning interrupting power to 4000 homes for 5 hours. These storms produced over 400 strokes of cloud-to-ground lightning and started 40 small fires in the Wenatchee National Forest.
April 2005Flash FloodYakima-no account filed
May 2005Funnel CloudYakima-no account filed
October 2005HailYakima-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Yakima 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Capitol Theatreunder 500 feet1973
Masonic Temple0.1 miles1996
A. E. Larson Building0.1 miles1984
Brooker-Taylor House0.2 miles1987
Young Women's Christian Association Building0.2 miles1993
First Baptist Church0.2 miles2016

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 79002568 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Yakima CountyAll 73 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.