Taylor County Courthouse

Built in 1913 (Neoclassical architecture). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

From the record

“The current Taylor County Courthouse, built in 1914, is a Neoclassical-styled three-story building with a metal-clad dome, located in Medford, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.”
Wikipedia article Taylor County Courthouse (Wisconsin), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Taylor County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · built in 1913, 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 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 224 S. 2nd, Courthouse Sq., Medford, 54451
When was it listed? May 1980
Category. building
City. Medford city
When was it built? 1913
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 80000198 - 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

135 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 135 fires within 5 miles of Taylor County Courthouse between 1992 and 2018, burning about 94 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 were 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
Debris and open burning	65
Equipment and vehicle use	29
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	22
Arson/incendiarism	5
Other causes	4
Recreation and ceremony	3
Fireworks	2
Smoking	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	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 2003	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
25 September 2001	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
23 September 1998	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
23 August 1992	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
21 August 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
20 August 2000	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
16 August 1994	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
6 July 2013	Fireworks	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Taylor County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 30 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 30 workings within 5 miles of Taylor County Courthouse: 19 past producers, 6 occurrences, 3 unknowns, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
Stetsonville Clay Pit	Clay	Past Producer
Anderson Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Apple Avenue Gravel Deposit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
Bauer Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Unknown
Black River Gravel Deposit #2	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Occurrence
Black River Gravel Pit #2	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Black River Gravel Pit #3	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Black River Gravel Pit #4	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Buehler Gravel Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Correction Creek Sand Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Taylor County

Storms near this property

60 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Medford, the town this property stands in, in 60 storm reports between 1995 and 2024: 35 thunderstorm wind, 18 hail, 3 heavy rain, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 death. 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 1999	Lightning	Medford	1 killed	no account filed
June 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$40,000	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Medford	$30,000	no account filed
July 2023	Hail	Medford	$25,000	Broadcast media reported tennis ball sized hail near Medford.
June 2005	Tornado (F0)	Medford	$25,000	no account filed
July 2023	Hail	Medford	$20,000	Emergency manager reported golf ball sized hail at the fairgrounds in Medford.
July 2023	Hail	Medford	$20,000	Public reported hen egg sized hail near Medford.
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$20,000	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across the southern part of the county with no specific location given.
August 2000	Hail	Medford	$15,000	no account filed
March 1998	Hail	Medford	$15,000	no account filed
June 2009	Flood	Medford	$10,000	Flooding was reported along County Road M, which closed one lane. There were also reports of washouts in some nearby backyards. In fact, a large part of a back yard of a residence near the intersection of County Road E and M was washed into a lake.
August 2000	Hail	Medford	$8,000	no account filed
August 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$7,000	no account filed
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$6,000	no account filed
December 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$5,000	A farm outbuilding was damaged west of Medford.
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$5,000	no account filed
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$4,000	Law Enforcement reported numerous trees and power lines down in Medford. Power outages were also reported.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$3,000	Trees and power lines were blown down in Medford.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$3,000	A few trees and at least one power pole were blown down just outside of Medford.
April 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,500	Law enforcement reported trees down in the city of Medford.
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,500	no account filed
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,000	Trees were blown down west of Medford.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,000	Power lines were blown west of Medford.
September 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,000	Trees were blown down onto County Road O west of Medford.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,000	The emergency manager reported power lines and a tree down in the city of Medford.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$2,000	Several large trees were blown down in the city of Medford.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,500	no account filed
August 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,500	no account filed
July 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,000	Trees were blown down in Medford.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,000	Law enforcement officials reported trees, power lines, and light poles blown down.
June 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,000	no account filed
July 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$1,000	no account filed
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$750	no account filed
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$500	A carnival tent was blown over at the Taylor County Fair.
July 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$500	The emergency manager reported trees down in Medford.
August 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$500	The general public reported a tree down across a roadway eight miles west of Medford.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	$250	no account filed
July 2024	Tornado (EF0)	Medford	-	This weak EF-0 started northwest of Medford, mainly producing tree damage along a 1 mile long path before lifting 2 minutes later. The damage path was identified with video footage of the tornado and drone footage provided by Taylor County Emergency Management.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	Broadcast media reported several uprooted and snapped trees in the city of Medford.
October 2024	Hail	Medford	-	The public reported quarter sized hail.
August 2016	Heavy Rain	Medford	-	In Medford, 4.33 inches of rain fell.
April 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	Amateur radio operators estimated a 70 mph wind gust in Medford.
September 2010	Heavy Rain	Medford	-	The storm total rainfall amounted to 3.40 inches. Also, the cooperative observer in Jump River measured a total rainfall of 3.27 inches.
September 2009	Hail	Medford	-	Hail covered the ground but the largest hail stones were the size of quarters.
June 2009	Heavy Rain	Medford	-	A rainfall amount of 3.51 inches was reported.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	Several trees blown down and one tree partially blocking Highway 13.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	A large area of low pressure over the Upper Mississippi Valley triggered isolated severe thunderstorms over northwest, north-central, and southwest Wisconsin. Hail up to nickel-size fell and there were reports of large trees and power lines downed by the powerful winds in Bloomingdale (Vernon County), and in Medford (Taylor County).
June 2012	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
August 2005	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
September 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	no account filed
March 1998	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
July 1995	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
July 1995	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
July 1995	Hail	Medford	-	no account filed
September 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Medford	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Taylor 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
J. W. Benn Building	under 500 feet	1983
Medford Post Office	0.1 miles	2000
Medford Free Public Library	0.2 miles	1993

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80000198 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Taylor County	All 7 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.