Grand Army of the Republic Hall, a brick fortress-style building across from Central Park, was built in 1885 by Civil War Union soldiers to promote veterans causes and provide assistance to veterans and their families. It was the home of Frank Daggett Post 35 and remains basically the same as when the veterans used it. The hall contains a collection of Civil War relics and G.A.R. memorabilia and is the only building of its kind in Minnesota. In 1961, the Meeker County Historical Society built an adjacent museum containing important artifacts from Meeker County and its past. Litchfield's Historic Downtown was designated a Commercial District by the National Register of Historic Places on March 1, 1996. Its buildings date from about 1882 through about 1945 and are strongly associated with Litchfield's historic role as an agricultural trade center on the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Line, later the Great Northern Railroad. With more than 40 buildings, the Litchfield Commercial Historic District is an unusually intact example of a late 19th- and early 20th-century business district in a small Midwestern farming community. Many of its commercial buildings were built with bricks manufactured locally at the Brick Yard Farm owned by Henry Ames, 2 miles northeast of Litchfield. Litchfield was named for three brothers who helped finance construction of the St. Paul & Pacific Railroad through the area and elsewhere in the state: E. Darwin Litchfield, Egbert E. Litchfield, and Edwin C. Litchfield.