The Mueller Shed

An 1870s shed that stood for a century and a half — lost to fire in August 2023, and now being replaced.

A shed with a history

The Mueller Shed was built in the 1870s and worked for generations on a farm about a mile south of the historical grounds before it was moved to the site. By 2023 it had stood for roughly 150 years. Like every building in the historic village, it earned its keep: it displayed two wagons, a buggy, a restored sleigh, and smaller farm equipment, and it hosted the society's changing yearly exhibit — in its final year, the entire collection of antique toys. It also quietly did a modern job, housing the electrical meter and main connections that powered all the other buildings on the grounds.

The fire

In the early morning hours of Monday, August 28, 2023, fire took the Mueller Shed. Firefighters from ten departments answered the call, and though the shed and nearly everything in it were lost — only a few metal implements survived — they kept the fire from spreading and saved every other building on the grounds. The cause was never officially determined.

Firefighters from several departments working through the charred frame of the Mueller Shed in the dark, hose lines crossing the wet grass and smoke still rising from the roofline — Firefighters from ten departments at the shed in the early hours of August 28, 2023. They saved every other building on the grounds.

"We lost our Mueller Shed to a fire early this morning. It contained two wagons, a buggy, a restored sleigh, smaller farm equipment and the entire collection of toys, which was this year's changing display in that building. … Thank you to the firefighters from 10 different departments who kept the fire from spreading and saved the other buildings!"
— the society's announcement, August 28, 2023

How the community answered

The response began before the ashes were cold. Neighbors and friends of the site asked how they could help with the clean-up, and donations came in for the recovery. The Freistadt Alte Kameraden Band — playing in Freistadt since 1845 — contributed to restore electric power to the grounds, which had gone dark with the shed. Fundraisers sprang up as far as Cedarburg. It was the same spirit that raised the village's first buildings: when something is lost, the community builds it back.

Replacing the shed

The society is in the process of replacing the Mueller Shed — and the shed itself is helping. Its massive hand-hewn timber frame survived the fire, charred but standing, and the rebuild is rising within it: volunteers and a local concrete crew have poured a new floor inside the old frame, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow, and newly built roof trusses stand ready nearby.

The loss also gave new urgency to a bigger project: the Exhibition Barn campaign, a timber-frame barn that will give the collection a permanent, purpose-built home on the grounds. If you'd like to help, the campaign page lists the official ways to give.

Volunteers and a concrete crew screeding a fresh concrete floor inside the Mueller Shed's charred timber frame, wheelbarrows carrying concrete in from a mixer chute — Pouring the new floor inside the shed's surviving frame — the blackened beams overhead came through the fire.

A worker guiding a power screed across the wet concrete while others rake it level beneath the shed's charred beams

Volunteers leaning on a charred timber beam as the crew works the edge of the freshly poured concrete floor

The finished concrete floor curing inside the shed's standing charred frame, a shovel leaning against a post and new roof trusses staged in the background

Work continues — more photos and updates will be added here as the shed comes back.