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The Thomas P. Kennard House, a structure designated by the State Legislature as the Nebraska Statehood Memorial in 1965, was one of three masonries designed by John K. Winchell of Chicago in 1869 for members of the Capital Commission. The Commission, established to select a new state capital location with Governor David Butler, Auditor John Gillespie, and Secretary of State Thomas P. Kennard serving as members of Commission, selected the present site on July 29, 1867. The Kennard House, featuring Italianate domestic architectural design, is the only standing structure of three masonries and is considered as the oldest house within the original plat of Lincoln, Nebraska.