Fossil Sandbox
The sandbox with the ancient fossils and bones provide a greater understanding of ancient life in and around the Washington County area. It allows children to interact with history and gain a greater understanding what it is typically read about in school. Some of the fossils and bones in the sandbox are: mammoth or mastodon teeth and bones, corals, snail shell, and teeth of prehistoric horses.

The house, built on an eleven acre tract at the end of Grant and Lincoln Streets, was a three story structure with twenty-two room, an imposing example of the "High Victorian" style in domestic architecture of the opulent 1880s.

It was replete with ornate cornices and gables, stained glass windows, patterned brick work in chimneys, built-in gutters, slate shingles, running water piped from cisterns and the most modern plumbing facilities of the day.
Features of the interior were:

Fourteen foot ceilings, parquet floors, handsome oak stairways, balustrades and grill work, oak, walnut and cherry paneling, plaster ornaments in ceilings, Fresco painting on walls and ceilings (done by a Chicago artist), ten marble fireplaces, functional or ornamental imported French plate glass mirrors, ten and twelve foot doors, twelve called "front doors" and etched glass panels.

Toby's, an exclusive Chicago furniture store, supplied the original furnishings.

The mansion was given to the Methodist Church in 1905 to be used as a home for retired Methodist ministers and families.  It was altered during the years as its doors opened wider to elderly citizens.

Posted 4/12/2003

Fontenelle became the county seat of Dodge County on March 6, 1855. In the meantime Fontenelle entered the lists as a contestant for the prize of the Territorial Capital, but failed after having exhausted every expedient known to the politics and diplomacy of those times. She, however, was incorporated and became a city, by legislative enactment, Monarch 14, 1855. She also succeeded in securing a charter for a college, named "Nebraska University," to be located there; so she was not altogether destitute of consolation. A building, suitable for an academy, was erected in 1856, as preliminary to the University, and a school opened under the auspices of the Congregational Church, which was a flourishing institution for a number of years. Professor Burt was the first principal.  Source

"In accordance with these instructions the Nebraska University, located at Fontenelle, February, 1855, and commonly referred to as the "Fontenelle school," was transferred to the Congregationalists, January, 1858. A tract of 112 acres was set apart for the school almost ideal in the lay of the  land, and the early prospects of the school were bright, but subsequent disappointments many. Fontenelle had an ambition to secure the county seat and also the capital of the new state."  Source   Source