Lime Kiln Dam

The Milwaukee Falls Lime Company was established in 1892 with the opening of a limestone quarry in the Village of Grafton, where it built five lime kilns near the Milwaukee River north of Cedar Creek and used a dam, later rebuilt in concrete around 1915, and a raceway to power machinery that ran quarry drills and tram cars hauling stone to the kilns. The company continued producing lime until operations passed to the Tews Lime and Cement Company, but as demand declined in the early twentieth century, production at the site decreased and ended by the mid-1920s. In the early 1960s, the Village of Grafton acquired the site, filled the former millrace, and made repairs to the failing dam in 1963, while parts of the industrial complex, including four tramway piers and the raceway walls, remained visible. The site also reflected the wider history of Wisconsin limestone production, a major industry by 1859 that supplied lime for whitewash, plaster, mortar, soil conditioning, and leather treatment, reached national prominence in the early twentieth century, and then declined by the 1920s and through the Great Depression. After a 2008 dam safety inspection, the Village chose removal over structural repair, partnered with Ozaukee County to remove the dam in 2010 for fish passage, and archaeological study led to recognition of the Milwaukee Falls Lime Company and Lime Kiln Park on the National Register of Historic Places and the State Register of Historic Places in January 2012, with the raceway walls retained as part of the historic site.

Grafton, Wisconsin · United States