[4] Margarethe Schurz (née Meyer) was born in Hamburg, Germany, and at age sixteen listened to a series of lectures from the German educator Friedrich Fröbel.

[6] Carl became a lawyer, a Republican, a key supporter of Lincoln among German-Americans, a major general in the Union Army during the Civil War, and United States Secretary of the Interior.

[7] After the Schurzes left, the Watertown kindergarten operated sporadically until the First World War, when it closed due to suspicion of all things German.

In 1956 it was threatened with demolition, and the Watertown Historical Society moved the structure from its original location on North Second St. to its current site alongside the Octagon House and began to restore it as the kindergarten building.

Because this building was moved from its original location and substantially changed, the National Register doesn't consider it of great architectural significance.