[3] The house was designed by John F. Rague and built for local businessman and lead miner Mathias Ham in 1857.

[4] The architect, John F. Rague, who had designed the original state capitol buildings at Springfield, Illinois and at Iowa City, Iowa, designed the house in the Italian Villa style.

[2] The Mathias Ham House has been restored and transformed into a museum showcasing life during the Antebellum era; it contains American and European furnishings from that period.

The cabin was built in 1833 at 2nd and Locust Streets in Dubuque, then moved to Eagle Point Park in Dubuque before being moved to the Mathias Ham House Historic Site.

[2] Additionally, a one-room schoolhouse (the former Humke School) was relocated to the property.