Greendale Historic District
N 42° 56.558 W 087° 59.749
16T E 418756 N 4754925
The Village of Greendale is an historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Village Hall is at 6500 Northway. Also within the district are the Trimborn Farm and Jeremiah Curtin House
Waymark Code: WM233P
Location: Wisconsin, United States
Date Posted: 08/27/2007
Views: 13
The Village of Greendale is an historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Village Hall is at 6500 Northway. Also within the district are the Trimborn Farm and Jeremiah Curtin House.
Text on the marker at the Greendale Village Hall reads:
"Greendale was one of three Greenbelt towns constructed by the Federal Government during the 1930s. The main objectives were to demonstrate a planning concept combining the best of country and city living, to provide good housing for low income families, and to create construction jobs for the unemployed during the economic depression of the 1930s. Government ownership ended in 1952 when the buildings were offered for sale to the residents."
Text on the marker at the Trimborn Farm reads:
"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-fire 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 Farms.
The Trimborn barn and kilns and neighboring Jeremiah Curtin House remain as excellent example of the use of local stone and lime."
Text on the marker at the Jeremiah Curtin House reads:
Born in Detroit of Irish immigrant parents, Curtin
came to Milwaukee in 1837 to join his mother's family the Furlongs
and settle on a farm in Greenfield. In the 1840's the Curtins moved
into this typically Irish stone house described in Curtin's
Memoirs. After his father's death Jeremiah persevered in his
love for learning and languages and graduated from Harvard College
in 1863. His command of Russian won him a position in the U.S.
Legation in St. Petersburg in 1864, thus launching his forty-year
world-wide career as linguist, translator (Sienkiewicz's Quo
Vadis), ethnologist, folklorist, and diplomat. He died and was
buried at his wife's Vermont home in
Bristol.