307 North State Street
Waseca, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Waseca County Courthouse

Statement of Significance:

The Waseca County Courthouse is significant as the seat of county government and as the best representative of the role county government has played in the development of the city of Waseca. In 1857, when the county was first organized, the county seat was at Wilton, Minnesota.

Controversy over the location of the county seat developed after the decision of the Winona & St. Peter Railroad to chart its course four miles north of Wilton, through the hitherto non-existent town of Waseca. Discussion began as early as 1868 to remove the county seat from Wilton to Waseca. In 1870 Major W.C. Young, Waseca county's state representative. Introduced two bills to the legislature: 1) to allow Waseca County to put the question of the removal of the county seat to a vote of county residents, and 2) to authorize the city of Waseca to raise bonds for the construction of a new courthouse to give the county if the county seat should be removed to that site. The bills were successful and the vote to remove the courthouse to Waseca was successful. Most of the records and furniture were transported the night of the election, opening for business in the newly constructed courthouse in Waseca the day after the election.

The present courthouse, built in 1897, is located on the north end of State Street, the main north/south commercial artery of Waseca. The scale and attention to design for courthouses of the period mark this building as a prominent local landmark.