The Exhibition Barn Campaign

We're raising a timber-frame barn on the historical grounds — a home, at last, for the collection.

Concept rendering of the planned timber-frame Exhibition Barn: weathered board-and-batten siding, a metal roof, sliding barn doors, and a covered porch, with the historic village in the background — An AI-generated rendering of what the finished Exhibition Barn might look like — for inspiration only; see the construction plans below for the real design.

Why a barn?

The society's collection has outgrown its walls. Vintage cameras, handkerchiefs, almost 100 years of confirmation photos from Trinity's vault, a recreated hardware store, wedding finery spanning a century, farm tools and family treasures — today these can only be shown a little at a time, in rotating exhibits squeezed into the historic buildings.

The planned timber-frame Exhibition Barn — roughly 40 by 60 feet, about 4,200 square feet — will give the collection a permanent exhibit space on the historical grounds, built in the same craft tradition the site preserves. Construction plans are in hand, and fundraising is underway: pancake breakfasts, chili suppers, raffles, and band nights have all been feeding the building fund.

How to give

By check

Make your check payable to Trinity Freistadt Historical Society and write "Exhibition Barn" on the memo line. Mail it to:

Trinity Freistadt Historical Society
10729 W. Freistadt Rd.
Mequon, WI 53097

At our events

Come to a Pancake Breakfast, buy a raffle ticket at the Ice Cream Social, or join a chili supper — event proceeds go to the building fund, and you get pancakes.

Online giving is coming: a secure online donation link (via Zeffy, a zero-fee platform for nonprofits) will be added to this page. Until it appears here, no online payment link claiming to be for this campaign is ours.

The plans

Final construction plans were completed in July 2025 by Design 4 Style Architecture — a two-story timber frame with a covered shed porch, rough-sawn board-and-batten siding, and a metal roof. Front and rear elevations below; the full nine-page set (site plan, elevations, floor plans, timber-frame section) is available as a PDF.

Architectural drawing sheet: front and left elevations of the two-story timber-frame Exhibition Barn, showing sliding barn doors, divided-light windows, and a covered shed porch — Front and left elevations (page 2 of 9).

Architectural drawing sheet: rear and right elevations of the Exhibition Barn, showing the gable end with stacked windows and the porch roofline — Rear and right elevations (page 3 of 9).

View the full construction plans (PDF, 17 MB)

Progress

Campaign progress
The fundraising goal and amount raised to date will be tracked here as the society publishes the numbers.