The Wallace W. Waterman Sod House near Big Springs, Nebraska, United States, is a

sod house The sod house or soddy was an often used alternative to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the Great Plains of Canada and the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Primarily used at first for animal shelters, corrals, and fences, ...

built in 1886. It was modified in 1925 for continued use, including a layer of concrete being applied to the exterior walls. It was listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1995. The listing included two

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, the second being a small outbuilding from 1925.

History

Wallace W. Waterman and his wife, Libby King Waterman moved to Nebraska's

High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions: * High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains *High Plains (Australia) The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...

region from Pennsylvania. They built the 25 X 29 foot house in 1886 at the southern end of a settlement known as Day, Nebraska. The house was divided into 3 rooms and had two foot wide walls. Of the three other houses in Day, one was constructed of stone, one was wooden, and the last was also constructed of sod. The settlement also had a Methodist church, a school, a post office (from 1890 to 1903), and a few businesses. No traces of Day or these other buildings survive except for the Waterman house. Modern grain storage facilities are located immediately west of the house, across Day Road. Otherwise cropland surrounds the house for miles around. In 1925 the house was modified by Virgil and Helen Burke Waterman to prevent deterioration of the sod walls. A gable roof was added with the loft being divided into two bedrooms. A 10 X 16 foot porch and a cistern were added to the southern side and the walls were covered in concrete. A cellar was dug beneath the kitchen. The improvements did not include running water, but the kitchen was equipped with a hand pump for water and a modern stove. See Members of the Waterman family lived in the house until 1989. In 1993 the house was donated to the

Deuel County Deuel County is the name of two counties in the United States: * Deuel County, Nebraska: named for Harry Porter Deuel, a long time railroad official who resided in Omaha, NE * Deuel County, South Dakota Deuel County ( ) is a county in the U.S. ...

Historical Society with the provision that it be used for historical or educational purposes. A roadside historical marker describing the house is located nine miles south of the house in Big Springs. In 1994 the Nebraska Historic Buildings Survey knew of 14 other extant sod houses in the High Plains region. All but one had their exterior walls covered with stucco or concrete for protection. Only four were still being used as residences.

References

External links

*, County history, pp. 9–14 {{DEFAULTSORT:Waterman, Wallace W., Sod House Houses in Deuel County, Nebraska Houses completed in 1886 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Sod houses National Register of Historic Places in Deuel County, Nebraska