Nick Engelbert was born Engelbert Koletnik on August 31, 1881 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After serving as a apprentice machinist for a fe w years, he joined the Austrian Army. He later had several jobs while traveling though Europe on a bicycle. From 1906-1912 Nick traveled the world as a nautical engineer. He eventually came to the United States and changed his name to Nicholous Engelbert. In 1912 he moved to Chicago where he met Katherine Thoni, a Swiss immigrant. They were married in 1913 and spent their honeymoon in Hollandale, Wisconsin. Nick and Katherine moved to Hollandale permanently in 1914. Initially Nick worked as a cheesemaker, but in the late 1920s Nick and Katherine started the Grandview Dairy.

Nick created his first sculpture in the 1930s while recovering from an ankle injury. Other statues followed. He also embellished the house and added an ornate porch. In the early 1950s Nick's daughter Alyce and her husband gave Nick a set of paints. Prints of some of his paint ings are on exhibit in the house, a number of originals are housed in the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. After Katherine died in 1960, Nick left Grandview. He died on August 31, 1962 in Maryland. The house and personal property were sold at auction. No one has lived in the house since 1962. The house and statues gradually deteriorated. 

     In  1991 the Kohler Foundation, Inc. purchased Grandview and began cataloging Nick's works and restoring the house and grounds. Many of the statues were restored, others were recreated using original pieces. A few statues were taken to the JMK Art Center in Sheboygan. The house was restored as a museum with exhibits on the ground floor. In 1998 the Kohler Foundation gifted Grandview to the PEC Foundation.