Said to be designed by J.A. Chapin of Lima, the design of the house is based heavily on Design No. 53 from George Franklin Barber's Cottage Souvenir #2. The house was built for Julius Boesel, a leading member of New Bremen society. The design mixed brick and frame construction, sitting atop a stone foundation, to produce this twenty-room, two-and-a-half story house. When Boesel and his family moved into the house in late October 1895, the local newspaper spoke favorably of the new building, calling it "one of the finest in the county" and observing that the "view of the building while coming from Lock Two almost makes a person feel as though he were entering the suburb of a big city." Included on the property was a massive carriage house.
