In 1842, Christian Groth sent four of his six sons from Germany to America with the family fortune. Their goal was to establish a wonderful and free life for future generations. They chose Wisconsin to settle, and the land they purchased would become Cedarburg. The Cream City brick farmhouse they built in 1858 is the homestead you are looking at today.
Every attempt has been made to preserve what was here, and add to the property in an appropriate way. The original brick farmhouse (1,800 sq ft), which features chestnut plank floors, has a new front porch and two large screen porches off both sides of the kitchen. In 2009, an addition in the style of a limestone barn was built (1,650 sq ft). A timber frame barn (1,200 sq ft), with white oak siding and a black walnut shingled roof, was also built in 2009. In 2014, the neighboring house to the North was purchased and demolished, and a large (2,560 sq ft) timber frame barn was constructed from black walnut with walnut shingled roof. The timberframe of this building is engineered from whole tree forms, and it has a heated, granite cobblestone floor and small bathroom. This barn creates a courtyard outside the kitchen of the house, and is connected to the house via an underground heated tunnel (just next to the stone wine cellar.)
There are also two stone outbuildings. The smaller one is the 1858 smokehouse and summer kitchen, which still functions as a working smokehouse. It has an adjacent fountain and frog pond. The larger storage building has a stone floor, timber roof structure and walnut shingled roof. The two large timberframe barns are temperature controlled; the two small stone buildings are not. This combination of barns and outbuildings is the perfect set-up for a car collector, craftsperson/artist, or just people who love to entertain.
The property has many mature trees, including a 150-year-old black walnut which towers over the back yard. The triple city lot is located a block from downtown Cedarburg, which made Insider.com’s list of “The Most Beautiful Main Street in Every State,” not to mention Forbes Magazine’s “Prettiest Towns in America.” It also topped Reader’s Digest list of “10 Small Christmas Towns With the Most Holiday Spirit.” Coffee, pizza and fresh bakery are all just a leisurely stroll away.
