The Newman House, built in 1872 by Hiram L. and Julia Ann Young Richardson, was purchased in 1918 by Joseph Newman, a native of Ohio and U.S. veteran of the Civil War. His son, Clarkson Lytle Newman, and Clarkson’s wife, Eunice Lindsey Newman, became the next owners, and their daughter Edith was reared there from childhood until her marriage. The house remained in the Newman family until its dedication as a museum on October 14, 1995, after Ezra Lee Culver restored it and presented it in 1995 to the citizens of Waterloo as a memorial to his wife, Edith Elizabeth Newman Culver.