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. Margarethe's family was prosperous and socially progressive, favoring the unification of the many small German states into one democratic nation. After losing in the
revolutions of 1848-49, some of the family left Germany. In London, Margarethe's sister started a kindergarten, and Margarethe helped, gaining experience. By this time Margarethe had a three-year-old daughter Agathe, and she started a kindergarten in her home for her daughter and four cousins, conducting classes in
German. After the Schurzes left, the Watertown kindergarten operated sporadically until the
First World War, when it closed due to suspicion of all things German. While it was a store, the front was substantially altered. 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. The building now serves as a
museum. The Schurz home, in which Margarethe began her kindergarten, burned and no longer exists, so this schoolhouse is the best representative of that first kindergarten. Because this building was moved from its original location and substantially changed, the National Register doesn't consider it of great architectural significance. It does consider it significant to the history of education at a
national level, because Schurz's school in Watertown was the first kindergarten in the U.S. ==References==