Waseca Commercial Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.

From the record

“Claghorn, who is engaged in the insurance, loan and real estate business, came to Waseca in October, 1868, and was employed in a butcher shop, which business he followed for two years, and then commenced his present business, having his office in Comee & Helms' furniture store. He now represents some twelve fire insurance companies and one life company.”
History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men (1887). Machine-read text.

One of 12 National Register listings published here for Waseca County · listed in 2020 · category: District.

Sources: the county history on the Internet Archive · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 54 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. Centering on State St. between Third Ave. NE/NW and Second Ave. SE/SW; Roughly Bounded by Second St. NW/SW and the Canadian Pacific RR Tracks, Waseca, 56093
When was it listed? January 2020
Category. district
City. Waseca city
National Register reference number. 100004864 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Waseca city. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men, published 1887 - Waseca City

The Colorado Beetle

Potato bugs were then new to the people of this country. Very few people had ever seen one prior to 1865. This year, (1868) the Mankato Record (now Review) remarked that "those striped bugs which, for the past three years have so seriously damaged the crop west of us, have already made their appear- ance in large numbers." Other papers noticed their appearance, and our paper remarlied that "we have not heard of any of these pests in this immediate vicinity, but doubt not tliey will soon visit this section." We remarked that they should be "attacked at first sight and exterminated if possible." As M'e soon after learned, this was more easily said tlian done.

Read the rest of this passage

The ground it stands on

35,970 words

The chapter on Waseca City in History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men, published 1887 names Waseca. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Men were without suitable arms, destitute of ammunition and entirely unorganized. The Indians came like a thief in the night, and before the settlers were aware of it they had murdered and plundered all the frontier settlements. To add to the general fear in this section, the Winnebago tribe of Indians was located on a reservation occupying portions of Blue Earth and Waseca counties, between Mankato and Wilton. The wildest stories were in circulation everywhere, and everybody believed them, more or less, because they had no means of knowing the contrary.

Passage source: History of Steele and Waseca Counties, Minnesota : an Album of History and Biography, Embracing Sketches of the Villages, Cities, and Townships : Educational, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Citizens, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Men, published 1887.

IIE cit}' of "Waseca, the seat of justice of the county, and the largest and most important town within its hmits,liesin Woodville Township, on sections 7, 8, 17 and 18, the greater part in the last two named. On the coming of tlie Winona & St. Peter Raih'oad to this part of the State in 1867, Ira C. Trowbridge laid out and platted a portion of land on sections 17 and 18, known as the Myers farm, into town lots, giving it the name of Waseca. The survey of this was made in July of the above-named year by Joseph H. Jenkins, surveyor. In September following, Mr. Trowbridge, in company with Mr. H. P. Norton, laid out what is known as the First addition on the northern part of the east half of the northwest quarter of section 17, north of the railroad. H. G. Mosher was the surveyor.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Waseca City - 35,970 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

1 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Waseca Commercial Historic District in 2020, burning about 1 acre 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
Arson/incendiarism	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
1 August 2020	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge	FELBER

Every fire recorded in Waseca County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Waseca Commercial Historic District: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Bauman Pit & Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Harguth Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Waseca County

Storms near this property

60 of 84 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Waseca, the town this property stands in, in 84 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 30 thunderstorm wind, 30 hail, 12 flash flood, 7 heavy rain. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	$4,000,000	no account filed
May 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	$100,000	Many large trees and power poles were snapped off from south to north across the city of Waseca. Also, a large grain bin was destroyed north of Waseca.
August 2025	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	A trained spotter reported 72 hour storm total of 9.83 inches of rain.
August 2025	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	The city of Waseca received close to 9 inches of rain spanning from Saturday evening into Sunday morning. Several roads near and around the city of Waseca were closed due to water over the road, including a portion of 110th street stretching from 325th to 360th. Emergency manager reported that the city had to bypass the sanitary sewer and dump into the lake to save numerous homes.
August 2025	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	Cocorahs station MN-WC-12 Waseca 1.6 SSE. 72 hour total of 6.87 inches.
August 2025	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	Cocorahs station MN-WC-8 Waseca 2.0 N. 72 hour storm total of 5.28 inches.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Six to eight trees down in the southeast bay of Watkins Lake. They were downed toward the west-northwest, which along with another report from the west side of Watkins Lake, is consistent with this having been due to a microburst.
July 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	About two dozen trees were downed on the west side of Watkins Lake. They were all knocked down toward the west-northwest. Trained spotters never reported a tornado with this highly visible storm. Discussion with local residents also took place and led to the conclusion that this was microburst damage.
June 2024	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Road closures were reported south of Waseca due to flooded roadways.
May 2022	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	Rainfall was measured at 3.20 inches.
June 2022	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	This was a measured rainfall report of 2.80 inches of rain in less than three hours.
August 2019	Hail	Waseca	-	In addition to the large hail stone, there was a power pole blown down in Waseca.
July 2019	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Local law enforcement officials barricaded 415th and 105th Street due to water over the road.
July 2019	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Local law enforcement officials barricaded parts of 410th and 120th street due to water over the road.
July 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	There were reports of multiple trees blown down around Waseca.
September 2018	Tornado (EF0)	Waseca	-	A NWS storm survey, plus areal footage of drone and satellite data, concluded that an EF0 tornado started east of Waseca, and tracked northeast for 3.9 miles until moving into Steele County. This tornado tracked mainly through corn and soy bean fields, and occasionally damaging a few power lines and power poles. The damage was consistent with EF0 damage with maximum wind speeds of 85 mph and a width of 250 yards.
September 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	A NWS storm survey concluded that severe straight-line winds up to 70 mph, damaged corn and soy bean fields in far northeast Waseca county.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Several trees were blown down north of Waseca.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Multiple large tree limbs were blown down in the city of Waseca.
June 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	The Minnesota Department of Transportation mesonet site at the southern edge of Waseca, along Highway 14, measured a wind gust of 63 mph. The first severe wind gust was 1220 LST at 59 mph, and continued to gust up to 63 mph through 1225 LST.
June 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	A measured wind gust at the Waseca airport.
September 2016	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Several roads in Waseca had one to two feet of flowing water. In addition, an unverified report of 10 inches of rain fell in the northeast part of Waseca late Wednesday night. Several homes and businesses in Waseca had flooded basements and other structural problems due to the flood waters.
September 2016	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Highway 13 near Highway 14 was closed due to flood waters.
September 2016	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	The city of Waseca continued to receive torrential rainfall that caused several roads to close. The flood waters started to affect homes that had to be evacuated.
September 2016	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Flood waters continued to affect the city of Waseca with the community arena reported of 6-8 inches of standing water on their ice rink.
September 2016	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	A local trained weather observer measured 6.55 inches of rainfall near Waseca between Wednesday afternoon, September 21st, to the early morning of Thursday, September 22nd.
September 2016	Heavy Rain	Waseca	-	A National Weather Service coop observer measured 7.64 inches of rainfall southwest of Waseca between Wednesday afternoon, September 21st, to the early morning of Thursday, September 22nd.
August 2016	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	A portion of County Road 2 was closed near Waseca due to high water. Several businesses and residential homes had water in their basements.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Large trees and a wooden swing were blown down north of Waseca near County Road 13.
September 2014	Hail	Waseca	-	Hail was piled up in town, with some areas up to 6 inches deep in the town of Waseca.
September 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Nearly 100 trees were blown down in the city of Waseca. It was also accompanied by large hail. In addition, an outdoor tent was blown down trapping approximately 30-40 people underneath the tent.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Several large trees were blown down around the town of Waseca, with power outages.
June 2014	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Significant street flooding occurred in Waseca, with several roads impassable.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	A large tree was blown down in Waseca.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Numerous trees and power lines were blown down around Waseca, Minnesota. A few trees fell on homes in Waseca.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Power lines were blown down near Waseca, Minnesota.
June 2010	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Several inches of rainfall occurred around the area and produced significant flooding in fields, and local roadways. Some of the water was two to three feet high and flowing over sidewalks in Waseca, Minnesota.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	A trained spotter measured a wind gust of 52 knots near Waseca, Minnesota.
June 2009	Funnel Cloud	Waseca	-	A trained spotter followed a persistent wall cloud from the City of Waseca along Highway 14. It produced one and sometimes two adjacent funnel clouds, a comment echoed by a Steele County spotter who also photographed the funnel.
June 2009	Tornado (EF0)	Waseca	-	Several storm chasers, local law enforcement officers and trained spotters followed funnel clouds across central Waseca County, before the tornado was observed forming just north of the City of Waseca on Clear Lake. The tornado moved onshore and then eastsouthward to Goose Lake. No property damage occurred but several large 14 diameter trees were uprooted when the tornado came onshore. Other broken trees were noted near Goose Lake.
August 2007	Flash Flood	Waseca	-	Street flooding with a few cars stranded. One basement flooded, with water coming in through windows and a downstairs door.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Numerous reports of 12 to 18 inch diameter trees downed.
July 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Power pole down.
July 2006	Hail	Waseca	-	Hail occurred at the County Fairgrounds in the northeastern portion of the city. Ponding of water was also reported near Clear Lake Park.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Trees were downed.
June 2005	Lightning	Waseca	-	An outbuilding at a farm was destroyed by a lightning-related fire on 110th Street in Section 36 of Iosco Township. The time was estimated.
June 2005	Lightning	Waseca	-	A bolt of lightning struck the fascia of a home on 368th Avenue and came out through the siding. Three people inside the structure felt tingling immediately after the bolt hit, but were uninjured. The time was estimated.
June 2005	Hail	Waseca	-	Penny sized hail fell near the Waseca and Steele County border east of Waseca.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Two trees up to 10 inches in diameter were downed. A power line was downed onto Elm Avenue.
June 2005	Hail	Waseca	-	Quarter sized hail fell just south of the Waseca Federal Correction Institution. Dime to nickel size hail fell in town.
June 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	A tree was downed onto a power line on County Road 4 near Wilton Bridge.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Several trees were downed across town. The hardest hit areas included the Highlands and Clear Lake. Debris from a damaged roof and sun porch broke windows on a home and damaged a garage and a car on Highland Drive. Boats and docks were damaged, roofs of homes were damaged, and several trees were downed along the northwest and east side of Clear Lake. In addition, many trees were downed in Goose Lake Park three miles east of town. One felled tree smashed a metal gate.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Trees up to one foot in diameter were downed. One felled tree damaged a home. A temporary greenhouse was also damaged.
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Small buildings sustained roof damage and some trees were downed in Section 33 of Iosco Township.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Waseca	-	Scattered trees down across the east side of Waseca.
May 2014	Hail	Waseca	-	no account filed
June 2014	Hail	Waseca	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Waseca	-	no account filed
May 2012	Hail	Waseca	-	no account filed
May 2011	Hail	Waseca	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Waseca 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
W. J. Armstrong Company Wholesale Grocers	0.1 miles	1982
Waseca County Courthouse	0.1 miles	1982
Philo C. Bailey House	0.2 miles	1994
William R. Wolf House	0.3 miles	1982
Roscoe P. Ward House	0.5 miles	1982
John W. Aughenbaugh House	0.6 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100004864 in Record Group 79.
Waseca County	All 12 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.