Built 1846 Opened 1846 Added to NRHP 17 March 1982 | NRHP Reference # 82000694 Architectural style Victorian architecture | |
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Location W61 N439 Washington Ave. Cedarburg, Wisconsin | ||
Wayside house inc 2016 excellence award winner
The Wayside House was begun in 1846, in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, USA, by Fredrick Hilgen, who later co-owned The Cedarburg Mill, and is considered the father of Cedarburg. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 1982.
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Frederick Hilgen immigrated from German in 1832, working as a clerk and serving in a state militia. In 1844 he bought some undeveloped land northwest of Milwaukee, including the site of this house. He had that land platted and it became the village of Cedarburg. He and William Schroeder built a grist mill on Cedar Creek in 1845.
In 1846 he built the first section of what would become the Wayside House on a wooded knoll. It was probably originally one story, with walls of coursed fieldstone, but it's difficult to tell because Hilgen kept expanding the house over the years. The current house is two stories, with a cross-gable roof and some walls clad in cream bricks. The front entrance is sheltered by an open wooden porch. By 1900 it had reached its current configuration. The house's second owner was John Schuette, and it's sometimes called the Hilgen-Schuette House.
Hilgen went on to found the Cedarburg Mill in 1855 and the Wittenberg Woolen Mill in 1864.