Hilgen-Schroeder Mill Store

Welcome to Cedarburg! We hope that your stay here is very comfortable. Today, we will be touring the historic buildings of Cedarburg. We will be exploring the individuals and families that have lived here, what their structures looked like, and how they lived their lives here. Let's begin the tour!   

Established in 1856, Frederick Hilgen; was a German immigrant who followed the Lutheran denomination of Christianity. Sailed for the United States in 1832, initially to Baltimore, Maryland, and then to Charleston, South Carolina, due to persecution of Lutheran groups in Germany. Hilgen owned a store in Charleston until he and his wife sold their store and moved to Milwaukee to open a business there. Hilgen, at the same time, was also a land speculator seeking to buy unripe land to make a home for himself and his family. 

In the spring of 1844, Hilgen noted the unexplored land of Cedarburg. So, on April 1st of that year, he purchased 240 acres to the north of Cedarburg along Cedar Creek. Several days later, on April 13th, he settled Charles Melms 800$ for eighty acres he used to build his home. He would also use the money to build the mill store. But, of course, the Hilgen-Schroeder Mill Store was also like any general store in nineteenth-century America. It was also an available residence for those seeking a job or just needing shelter and rest from traveling.

But over the years, the store served a general purpose for the Cedarburg Mill across Columbia Road to the south. Hilgen built the store to help serve flour and feed produced from farmer's goods in the Cedarburg Mill. Into the twentieth century, it would then convert the mill store into a restaurant, and from that time up to 1941, its floors would change many times. The mill store is now the Cedarburg History Museum today. Notice which brick the building is made out of; this is Cream City brick from Milwaukee that gives the building its unique structure.  

Cedarburg History: Legend And Lore. Edition 1st. Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Library Of Congress, 1976.

Zimmermann, H. Russell. The Heritage Guidebook: Landmarks And Historical Sites In Southeastern Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Heritage Banks, 1976. 203.

Zimmermann, H. Russell. The Heritage Guidebook: Landmarks And Historical Sites In Southeastern Wisconsin/Highlights Of Historic Cedarburg. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Heritage Banks, 1976.

A Walk Through Yesterday: In Cedarburg Wisconsin.