We Want Offers for Trimborn Farm

Trimborn Harvest of Arts & Crafts. Photo courtesy of the Milwaukee County Historical Society.

Milwaukee County is accepting proposals from anyone interested in taking over the historic Trimborn Farm in Greendale.

The 19th century farm includes nine buildings sitting on approximately 7.3 acres of land at 8801 W. Grange Ave. The history of the property has roots in the development, and expansion of Milwaukee, as well as suburban Greendale. But today the buildings are aging and in need of significant upkeep, which the county does not want to continue paying for.

The county’s Economic Development Division is seeking potential operators interested in adaptively re-using the site, while maintaining its historic buildings and public access.

For more than 20 years, the farm has been operated by the Milwaukee County Historical Society. The society was an appropriate operator for the farm which was granted historic designation in the early 1980s. It’s also the site of a two-story, Greek revival barn built in the 1850s of coarse cut limestone from the foundation to the roofline. The stone was likely quarried nearby. The barn retains architectural significance as a well-made structure built by hand.

But now, due to financial considerations, the historical society wants to step back from the property.

The farm, more than 150 years old, was used to produce lime for roughly 50 years in the 19th century. The lime was used extensively in the construction of the city of Milwaukee. After that it became a dairy farm, and later, a staging ground for federal government construction.

In the 1930s, the federal government purchased the farm for its Greenbelt Program, a New Deal program to build communities for poor families that were outside of the urban core. The Village of Greendale was one of the few Greenbelt communities ever built.

In the early 1980s, with suburban development encroaching on the historic farm, the Milwaukee County Parks Commission became interested in acquiring and preserving it. The Park People of Milwaukee County restored the farm and the historical society took over operations in 2004.

The county only spends $15,000 annually on operations at the farm. But it’s on the hook for all the infrastructure. It’s estimated it would cost more than $27,000 just to restore the chicken coop, according to an assessment by the VFA, Inc.

It would require an estimated $1 million to restore the bunkhouse, Erica Goblet, project manager in the Economic Development Division, told Milwaukee County Supervisors in May.

The county is divesting buildings and infrastructure, particularly cultural institutions, all across the county. It got rid of two museums in 2024 and officials have worked out deals to get long-term costs associated with the Mitchell Park Domes, the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, the Milwaukee County War Memorial and the Milwaukee Art Museum off its books over the coming decade.

Milwaukee County Parks has also begun divesting itself of buildings and infrastructure it can’t maintain under current budgetary conditions. It has been knocking off low-hanging fruit for now, with buildings that have been long closed or underused. But even the low hanging fruit has started to include more important things like pools.

Trimborn Farm is an expense that county policymakers and administration officials have showed no interest in continuing to bear. That’s unlikely to change in the near future as the county looks ahead to years of successive, worsening budget deficits. Hence, the open call for proposals.

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