Discovery Sites
How to get there: Located at 118 N Main Street in Le Sueur.
What you will find: A small house with an interpretive panel
Services at this site: None
Explore a piece of Minnesota history at this small, Gothic-style house that was once home to the founders of the Mayo Clinic and Green Giant Company. Guided tours led by history interpreters explore the life and time period of Dr. William Worrall Mayo and family.
Hand-built by Dr. William Worrall Mayo, the “little doctor” in 1859, this home became the site of his first medical practice. Later in Rochester, Minnesota, Dr. W.W. Mayo and his two sons William James and Charles Horace founded the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.
Between 1874 and 1920, the small house was home to three generations of the Carson Nesbit Cosgrove family of Green Giant Company history. Seven children from the second and third generations of the family were born in the home, including two Green Giant Company Presidents.
Between 1936 and 1967, the home served the community as the first Le Sueur Public Library.
Since then, the Minnesota Historical Society now owns the Mayo House and has restored and warmly furnished it to the 1860 time period.
Things to Do: Discovery Site, Museum, U.S. - Dakota War of 1862
