The Grand Army Home was established in 1887 by the Wisconsin Department of the Grand Army of the Republic, a nationwide organization of Union veterans of the Civil War (1861-1865).

The Home provided care for indigent veterans and their wives in a pleasant community setting. The city of Waupaca donated seventy-eight acres along scenic Rainbow Lake to the veterans, and the local brnach of the Women's Relief Corps (an auxiliary of the G.A.R.) constructed several cottages on the site.

This was the first veterans' home in the nation to allow women to become members. Dr. Frederick A. Marden, a G.A.R. member from Milwaukee, originated the concept of a co-educational veterans' retirement community. He also devised the Home's cottage plan. Marden believed that elderly soldiers and their wives were owed a debt of gratitude for their service to the imperiled Union and that they would find contentment in the modest cottages and tree-shaded lanes at King.