Skip to main content
Trinity Freistadt Historical Society · Est. 1965
The 1839-era log cabin at the Trinity Freistadt Historical Site at sunset, behind a split-rail fence with tulips blooming at the gate

A Legacy of Faith.
A Story for Every Generation.

Wisconsin's first German settlement — founded 1839, still telling its story.

Volunteers scooping ice cream sundaes at the stand beneath the “Ice Cream Sundaes” banner in the barn

Next Event

Ice Cream Social — Sunday, August 16, 2026

Sundaes, picnic food, and the historic buildings open to wander. See all our annual events →

Visit the Site

Thirteen historic buildings, one story

Tour the log cabin, the blacksmith shop, and the rest of the historic village at 11856 N. Church Place, Mequon →

Concept rendering of the planned timber-frame Exhibition Barn: weathered board-and-batten siding, a metal roof, sliding barn doors, and a covered porch

Build the Barn

Help raise the Exhibition Barn

We're raising a timber-frame barn to finally put our collection on display. Learn how to give →

Since 1839

In 1839, about forty families from Pomerania, Prussia, crossed an ocean, the Erie Canal, and three Great Lakes to build a settlement in the Wisconsin forest where they could worship freely as Lutherans. They named it Freistadt — "free city." It became Wisconsin's first German settlement, and their fourth church, built in 1884, still stands on the land they purchased that first autumn.

Formed in 1965, the Trinity Freistadt Historical Society keeps that story alive — through the historic site's thirteen buildings, the Freistadt Alte Kameraden Band's July 4th tradition (part of celebrations here since 1845), reenactments, publications, and events all year round.

Read the Emigration Story About the Society
Historic photograph of the dirt road through Freistadt with the steepled 1884 Trinity church on the right
The Freistadt crossroads in an early photograph — the 1884 church at right.