Mellette House

Six years after coming to Watertown, Mellette built his fashionable Italianate home on what would become known as Mellette Hill - known today as Prospect Hill. The house was built with red bricks fired in the brick yard owned by Mellette and his friend and business partner, William McIntyre (1842-1895). It stood two-stories high with a three storey tower surmounting the low pitched roof that gave a 360 degree view over the countryside around. 

Similar to many houses of the period, Mellette's had wide cornices ornamented with fanciful eave brackets, taking on increased social prominence following Mellette's appointment as Governor of Dakota Territory in 1889. The circular staircase that spirals up from the ground floor to the top of the tower was said to have been constructed in Minnesota and sent from there by train to Watertown. 

Following Mellette's early death, the house was occupied by a succession of different families. Sometime in this period, a carriage house was added to the property that today serves as a museum housing memorabilia on the Mellette family and the early history of Watertown. In 1929, it found use as the home of Watertown’s first radio station before being divided into two apartments and sliding into decline.

By 1943, city authorities declared the old house a fire hazard and ordered it to be torn down. However, it was rescued from this fate by a civic-minded group led by Mrs F.J. Scholtz, Mrs Andrew Melham, Mrs R.G. Williams and Mrs Walter Miller who established the Mellette Memorial Association. They purchased the house for $500 and by 1946 had restored the house to it's former glory ready to be opened to the public for tours as a museum. 

In 1953, several pieces of original family furniture, personal papers and paintings returned to the house following the death of Arthur Anton Mellette (1872-1953). In 1976, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and continues to operate as a museum today.