Preserving the past while serving the present, future

Rich Palzewic

Staff

October 13, 2025

RHINELANDER – Wanting to build a space for the community, Nate Sheppard said he and his wife, Andrea, followed their passion as local artists and entrepreneurs and opened The Hilgermann Center for Community one year ago.

Sheppard said the center honors the building’s historic roots while fostering creativity and connection.

The Hilgermann Center, he said, houses four local businesses/needs – Crate Diggers Music & More, Child’s Frame Co., Nate Sheppard Media and then a rentable space.

“It also offers a versatile community space available for events and private rentals, hosting everything from performances and exhibits to workshops and community gatherings,” he said. “The Hilgermann Center serves as a welcoming venue for all ages to gather, create and celebrate.”

Twists, turns along the way

Sheppard, 36, said he and Andrea moved to Rhinelander from the Minneapolis area in 2015.

His story, Sheppard said, has “a lot of twists and turns,” originally moving to Rhinelander for a vocational pastor position at a local community church.

“That was my first real job out of college,” he said. “After doing that for three years, several factors led me to seek a full-time career in arts and media.”

That, Sheppard said, led him to start his own media company in Rhinelander, which he ran for five or six years before the Hilgermann property came up for sale.

“We used to host concerts in our house [before buying the Hilgermann] with about 60 people in our living room,” he said. “Initially, I was simply looking for a commercial property for studio space for my media company. I had a spare room in our house where I was doing all of my work, and I wasn’t getting out much and [was] starting to go stir-crazy.”

Being friends with the previous owner of the building, Sheppard said he had been in the space numerous times before.

“I had given him ideas of how to program it – before he decided to sell,” he said. “Even before we bought the property, my wife had told me she’d like a property like this if it ever came up for sale. It was very fortuitous that we ended up being able to purchase it.”

With the history of the building dating back to 1915, Sheppard said it made sense to honor its history.

“It was built by Otto Hilgermann – [his] name still appears on the face of the building,” he said. “Over the years, it has served as a bunch of different types of businesses and had apartments that are now abandoned.”

Up until about 2020, Sheppard said the main level of the building was in a state of disrepair.

“That was until the previous owner of the building purchased it and did a lot of the renovations – [refurbished the] floors, re-exposed the brick and brightened the place up,” he said. “It became a little too much for him, so that’s when we bought it.”

Though the previous owner of the building did “most of the legwork,” Sheppard said there was still some work to be done – and, currently, still is.

“Most of our work has been bringing the building up to code,” he said. “There were a bunch of hoops we had to jump through [to bring it up to code] because we were using the space as a community space. We didn’t have to do a ton of work but did some – including adding a bathroom, etc.”

Sheppard said he and Andrea found the building’s community space intriguing and thought it was perfectly set up for many of the activities they already loved.

Beyond its charm, he said, the rentable space offers versatility – perfect for small gatherings like workshops, classes, concerts, parties and meetings.

“Additionally, we were interested in using the space for community-oriented programming,” he said. “We’ve done theater shows, movie premieres, jazz lounge, electronic dance and music nights – anything that seems to be missing in our community where we can fill the gaps, allowing opportunities for the community to come together.”

With The Hilgermann Center approaching its one-year anniversary this November, Sheppard said he feels it’s successfully filling those gaps.

“Especially coming from a larger city and moving to a small town, sometimes there might not be a whole lot to do,” he said. “Andrea and I have a passion for trying to fill the gaps. We’ve also begun focusing on adult entertainment that doesn’t [have to include] alcohol and have done several family-friendly events.”

Sheppard said he and Andrea find great joy in being there for the community.

“There are so many people [from the] community who helped me get my start when I was doing full-time arts and media – several friends who believed in me and gave me spaces to grow,” he said. “Now, that’s part of the vision of our spaces – to offer that to other people…, to give artists and creatives a space to try out new ideas and give them some resources to grow.”

More work to be done

Though the building spans three stories, Sheppard said the middle and upper levels “need a lot of work” to become functional again, having once served as offices and apartments, respectively.

“I believe 1990 was the last time those spaces were legally occupied,” he said. “We recently had some gentlemen come through and look at the old apartments because their sister used to live there in the 1950s.”

Sheppard said he’s always been intrigued by the history of the building and wants to preserve as much of it as possible, while still looking toward the future.

“There have been a lot of memories made in this building,” he said. “I have a binder full of archival photos and news articles, and I’m slowly trying to build up my understanding of the history of this building. We want to be trailblazers, but we also have a really high value for connecting to the past.”

Sheppard said that means finding a balance between honoring the past and planning for the future.

“Both of those are really valuable, so that’s something we’ve tried to balance,” he said. “So far, I think we’ve done a good job of that and people seem to be enjoying it.”

Though they hope to renovate the top two floors, Sheppard said it’s not currently a practical option.

“It basically comes down to the money and the logistics of figuring out what the space could be used for,” he said. “Ideally, I would love to turn the middle floor into studio space. There are several independent artists and small business artists [in the area] who don’t need a lot of space, but they need some.”

As for the top floor, Sheppard said he’d love to turn it into a 1950s boutique hotel, or something similar.

“I have no idea if that would even be an option – the space doesn’t even have electricity or plumbing [currently],” he said.

Sheppard said part of the effort involves advancing downtown Rhinelander as a destination for visitors.

“Part of that movement is because of the centrality of our location,” he said. “Our location is the equivalent of a main street, so several businesses are part of this and trying to make downtown Rhinelander a destination. [The downtown area] has a wine bar, [it has] a tap room and a board game store as well.”

Sheppard said arts and culture play a key role in that growth.

“Within The Hilgermann Center, we have a record store, a frame shop and the community space,” he said. “Can we get to a point where you come to downtown Rhinelander and see a show and have some interesting nightlife? A part of that could be having a boutique hotel experience. For right now, it’s all just ideas and dreams.”

For more on The Hilgermann Center for Community, visit its Facebook page or head to thehilgermann.com.