This week on Urban Spelunking, we're heading to Greendale to visit a mid-19th century home that has been preserved as a living museum.
The former Jeremiah Curtin house sits in a present-day public park, which also includes a swath of land that was one time called Trimborn Farm. There is a live-in caretaker on the site, and one of the buildings -- the Curtin house -- is open to public visitors in season, during non-pandemic times.
The Curtin name may sound familiar. Curtin "would later gain fame as a scholar, author, translator, folklorist," writes OnMilwaukee's Bobby Tanzilo, after leaving Milwaukee to attend Harvard University and graduating in 1863. There is also a building bearing his name on the UW-Milwaukee campus.
On this podcast, we learn about the Curtin family history, and we touch on the early roots of Greendale, one of a handful of planned "greenbelt" communities in the nation.
Take a listen to the podcast, and visit OnMilwaukee for more photos and history.
