804 East Elm Avenue
Waseca, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Roscoe P. Ward House

Statement of Significance:

Since the procurement of the county seat in 1870, the city of Waseca dominated commercial and industrial development in the county. This dominance produced a significant number of large residences around the turn of the century. The R. Percy Ward House is the most prominent residential structure of this group of houses. In 1896 R.P. Ward engaged family friend and architect, E.S. Stebbins, to design his Elm Avenue residence, on the main east/west artery in Waseca.

W.G. Ward, along with his father-in-law, Ira Trowbridge, were the principal townsite developers and early entrepreneurs of Waseca. W.G. Ward was the city’s first mayor and he served two terms as a state senator. Ward's son, Roscoe Percy, continued the family's influence in the financial and political spheres of Waseca as president of the People's State Bank of Waseca (later Farmer's National, now part of the First Bank System). In addition, he was active in city politics, real estate, farming, lumbering. He was a director of the Waseca Creamery Association for 30 years, and owner of the Ward Dry Milk Company.

The R. Percy Ward House is significant as the best preserved "large residence" in Waseca and a representative index of the town's commercial and Industrial activity around the turn of the century.