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Property Location
| Location (Address) | 8801 W GRANGE AVE |
|---|---|
| County | Milwaukee |
| City/Village | Greendale |
| Township | |
| Unincorporated community | |
| Town | |
| Range | |
| Direction | |
| Section | |
| Quarter Section | |
| Quarter Quarter Section |
Property Features
| Year Built | 1846 |
|---|---|
| Additions | 1876 |
| Survey Date | 1980 |
| Historic Use | lime kiln |
| Architectural Style | Greek Revival |
| Structural System | |
| Wall Material | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect | |
| Other Buildings On Site | |
| Demolished | No |
| Demolished Date | |
| Additional Comments |
A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Historic Preservation. Cream brick may have built Milwaukee, but lime--the key ingredient in mortar--held it together. Much of Milwaukee’s lime came from Trimborn Farm. (See WK13 for a discussion of lime manufacture.) Jeremiah O’Donnell built the first lime kilns on this site around 1846; Werner Trimborn leased the property in 1850 and purchased it the next year. By 1876, Trimborn owned over five hundred acres, including kilns, pastures, cropland, and a nearby limestone quarry. The federal government bought most of this land in 1935 as part of the Greendale project (MI183). But Trimborn Farm‘s historic core survives as a public park. It includes a bunkhouse for thirty to forty employees, a board-and-batten stable, a stone house, a stone barn, and the remains of six limestone lime kilns with arched fire chambers. The two-story house, built around 1854 in a vernacular Greek Revival style, likely combined residential and business functions. The symmetrical side-gabled main facade has a central entry and segmental-arched, second-story windows. The gabled porch with tapered columns probably dates to the 1920s or 1930s. The house’s southern half, with its recessed southwest-facing porch, takes on an almost commercial appearance. Trimborn maintained offices in Milwaukee, but customers may have come to this part of the house to transact on-site business. The farm’s most impressive building is a 100-foot-long limestone barn, erected in 1852 and enlarged in 1876. A pulley at the apex of the gabled roof hoisted hay into the mow. A one-story wing with a shed roof, which stretches along the barn’s south side, housed horses and a granary. Inside the barn’s upper story are the original hewn oak timbers and purlins, tied with pegged joints, typical of timber-frame construction. |
| Bibliographic References | GREENDALE VILLAGE LIFE 5/19/1994. GREENDALE VILLAGE LIFE 8/4/1994. GREENDALE VILLAGE LIFE 2/23/1995. GREENDALE VILLAGE LIFE 7/13/1995. Greendale Village Life 4/23/1998. Greendale Village Life 9/23/1999. Waupaca Wisconsin State Farmer 5/24/2002. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings
| National/State Register Listing Name | Trimborn Farm |
|---|---|
| National Register Listing Date | Jul 31, 1980 |
| State Register Listing Date | Jan 01, 1989 |
| Contributing |
Architecture & History Inventory
The Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory (AHI) is a digital source of information on historic buildings, structures, and objects that have been surveyed by the State Historic Preservation Office in Wisconsin. Each property has a digital record providing basic information about the property and images.
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8800 BLOCK OF W GRANGE AVE
8762
Located in Greendale, Milwaukee County
COUNTY HIGHWAY D, S SIDE OF E END
13278
Located in Belgium, Ozaukee County
