Wisconsin's Lime Industry | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Wisconsin's Lime Industry

Wisconsin's Lime Industry | Wisconsin Historical Society

8801 W. Grange Ave., Greendale, Milwaukee County 

Lime production was an important nineteenth-century industry in southeastern Wisconsin, primarily because the region's geology provided abundant Silurian dolomite rock that was easily quarried. High-quality lime, used mainly in mortar and plaster, was produced by burning dolomite in wood-fired stone kilns. Over one million barrels of lime were produced annually in the 1880s, some shipped to surrounding states. Many of the lime manufacturers also quarried limestone used in building construction and praised for its beauty and durability. The limeworks of Trimborn Farm Park and nearby quarries represent a relatively unaltered nine­teenth-century example of the lime industry. Werner Trimborn began his lime busi­ness here in 1851, and it became one of the largest in Milwaukee County. The lime industry expanded with the construction boom in Milwaukee in the 1880s but then declined, ending about 1900 due to increased fuel costs and importation of new building materials. By then, dairying had become the main business of Trimborn Farm. The Trimborn barn and kilns and neighboring Jeremiah Curtin House remain as excellent examples of the use of local stone and lime.

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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]