The Michael Majerus House was built in 1891 as a second home for its owner. The architect was Theodore Kevenhoerster and the project came in under $5,000 (). It is uncertain why Majerus selected Second Empire architecture, a style that was more than a decade out of fashion and strongly associated with the years immediately after the American Civil War. More popular choices for 1891 would have been Queen Anne or Richardsonian Romanesque. Historian Charles Nelson speculates that Second Empire style had a romantic association for many of Minnesota's German American residents, of whom Majerus was one, as it still saw use throughout the 1880s and 1890s in many German American-owned breweries.
