Trimborn Farm is a

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

estate located in

Greendale, Wisconsin Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,854 at the 2020 census. Greendale is located southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. A planned community, i ...

and owned by

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County is located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, and the 45th most populous coun ...

. Spanning 7.5 acres (18.5 hectares) and nine buildings, it is listed on the

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 ...

. The farm is also a State Historic Site and designated Milwaukee County Landmark.

History

Around 1846 Jeremiah O'Donnell built lime kilns at the farm. In 1851, Werner Trimborn and Jacob Kier purchased O'Donnell's

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

-production business which covered ten acres (25 ha) on site. Kier left soon after, but Werner and his family continued on to become one of the largest producers of high quality lime in Wisconsin. At its height in the 1870s, the business held over 500 acres (1.2 km²; 1200 ha) of land and employed nearly 40 people. With With the 1900s came a drastic change in building materials, including the introduction of

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th c ...

. The estate was soon subdivided and sold off, with much of it going to the Theodore Vollmer family for use in dairy farming. In 1919, the Froemming family purchased a large tract of land to build greenhouses on, a portion of which was later donated to Whitnall Park. In 1935, the farm, along with 3,400 acres (8.4 km²; 8400 ha) of surrounding land, was purchased by the federal government as part of a planned agricultural community known as the Greendale Project. It is now the village of

. After the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the remaining farmland passed into private ownership, where it became home to crop dusters and a riding stable.

Attractions

The nine historic buildings and land which remain are part of the Milwaukee County Parks System. With the assistance of the

Milwaukee County Historical Society The Milwaukee County Historical Society, also known as MCHS, is a local historical society in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Founded in 1935, the organization was formed to preserve, collect, recognize, and make available materials related to Milwau ...

, a variety of community events and activities are scheduled year-round.Trimborn Farm
''Milwaukee County Historical Society,'' Retrieved May 27, 2008. Property highlights include: *Farmhouse — Constructed in

Greek Revival style The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

during the 1850s using

Cream City brick Cream City brick is a cream or light yellow-colored brick made from a clay found around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the Menomonee River Valley and on the western banks of Lake Michigan. These bricks were one of the most common building materials u ...

, a distinctive, light colored brick made locally. *Granary — Built in the 1850s using a technique on the interior called

brick nog Brick nog, (nogging or nogged,Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009. Nog, v. 2. beam filling) is a construction technique in which bricks are used to fill the vacancies in a wooden frame. The w ...

gin to protect against air infiltration. This building functioned as a bunkhouse and

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

. *Lime Kilns — In the 1840s and 1850s four

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone (calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime (material), lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this chemical reaction, reaction is :Calcium carbonate, Ca ...

s were constructed to heat limestone taken from the nearby quarry and turn it in to lime powder. *Stone Barn — Beginning in 1858 it was built in three phases, using limestone from the quarry. Two concrete silos were added in 1920. *Threshing Barn — Built in 1858, using vertical board and batten siding. The barn was used to store grain and house animals. Also part of the farm complex is the neighboring Jeremiah Curtin House, built in 1846, which is a unique stone house that was the boyhood home of noted American linguist and folklorist

Jeremiah Curtin Jeremiah Curtin (6 September 1835 – 14 December 1906) was an American ethnographer, folklorist, and translator. Curtin had an abiding interest in languages and was conversant with several. From 1883 to 1891 he was employed by the Bureau of Ame ...

; it was later sold to the Trimborn family.

References

External links

Milwaukee County Historical Society: Trimborn FarmMilwaukee County Parks System
{{Registered Historic Places Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Museums in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Open-air museums in Wisconsin Farm museums in Wisconsin Industry museums in Wisconsin Parks in Wisconsin Protected areas of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Houses in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Greendale, Wisconsin Lime kilns in the United States