Freistadt is more than a historic site — it's a living community. The church, the school, the community center, and the heritage groups around them all carry the story of Wisconsin's first German settlement forward.
The Freistadt neighborhood
The historic Freistadt neighborhood fills the northwest corner of Mequon, bounded by Highland, Mequon, Wasaukee, and Wauwatosa Roads. Most of its landmarks cluster at the old crossroads on Freistadt Road — outlined below, with a close-up map after it.
Freistadt
Lindenwood Community CenterThe former Lindenwood School, run by the Freistadt Heritage Foundation since 1989 — home to the 4-H club, Pommerscher Verein, Alte Kameraden Band, and Tanzdeel.
Nearly everything sits within a quarter mile of the corner of Freistadt and Granville Roads — the settlement's original crossroads. Open the corner in Google Maps
Historical SiteOur village of twelve historic buildings, on the grounds where Wisconsin's first German settlement took root in 1839.
Trinity Church & SchoolFounded by the 1839 Pomeranian settlers — Wisconsin's oldest Lutheran congregation, with a school serving children from infancy through eighth grade.
Buffalo Synod CemeteryA small pioneer burial ground preserving the congregation's early Buffalo Synod chapter, organized at Trinity in 1845.
Boehlke HardwareThe family hardware and plumbing store serving Freistadt since 1927, in its 1929 brick storefront — now in its third and fourth generations.
The LandmarkA cozy comfort-food restaurant with a vintage feel, in a classic clapboard building at the crossroads.
Korner-Q'sBarbecue and grill fare with neighborhood-tavern hospitality, holding down the corner across the road.
Freistadt AutomotiveThe neighborhood's repair shop, on the site of the 1925 Boehlke Garage that put Freistadt's farms on tractors.
Trinity-Freistadt Historical Site
Our own historic village, on the grounds of Trinity Lutheran Church of Freistadt. Its twelve historic buildings are open for tours from April through October — including a log cabin on the site of the first Lutheran church in the state of Wisconsin.
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church & School of Freistadt
The church was founded by the first Pomeranians in Wisconsin — "Old Lutherans" who fled Pomerania seeking religious freedom in 1839. The congregation still holds several services each week, and its child care center and school serve children from infancy through eighth grade.
Less than one mile from the historical site, the Lindenwood Community Center has been run by volunteers of the non-profit Freistadt Heritage Foundation since 1989. It isn't part of the historical society, but it is home to four organizations with kindred purposes — a 4-H club, a Pomeranian heritage society, a German brass band, and a Pomeranian folk dance troupe.
A small pioneer burial ground on the north side of Freistadt Road, across from Trinity's school. The Lutheran Buffalo Synod was organized at Trinity in June 1845, and this cemetery preserves that early chapter of the congregation's story — Trinity itself has belonged to the Missouri Synod since 1848. It is one of three Trinity cemeteries around the crossroads, alongside the old churchyard and the south cemetery on Granville Road.
A fixture of Freistadt Road since 1927, when Erich Boehlke opened a hardware business — first in a corner of the family's garage — to serve the local farming community. In 1929 the store moved into the brick storefront it still occupies, a building the Wisconsin Historical Society has inventoried as a notable example of early twentieth-century commercial architecture. In its general-store years it sold everything from cookware to Christmas gifts; today the third and fourth generations of the Boehlke family keep the old-time hardware experience alive, with an especially deep plumbing counter.
A cozy neighborhood restaurant in a classic two-story clapboard building at 10634 W. Freistadt Road, right at the historic crossroads. The Landmark is known for comfort food — beer-battered haddock with potato pancakes among the favorites — and a vintage, community-centered atmosphere with a loyal following.
Holding down the corner across the road at 10631 W. Freistadt Road, Korner-Q's serves barbecue and grill fare with tavern hospitality — the owners set out to recapture the welcoming, everybody-knows-your-name feel of a classic neighborhood bar and grill.
The neighborhood's independent repair shop occupies the site of the former Boehlke Garage, opened in 1925 selling Case tractors — and later Chevrolets — as Freistadt's farms traded their horses for machines. (Boehlke Hardware itself began in a corner of this garage in 1927.) As Freistadt Automotive since 2002, it services foreign and domestic cars and light trucks — tires, brakes, alignments, and honest repairs.
