Historic house brings together 4 B's

 

What do the 4-B's, the Charter Township of Bloomfield, the City of Bloomfield Hills, the Bloomfield Hills School District and the Bloomfield Historical Society have in common besides "Bloomfield"?

An 1830's Greek Revival house that must be saved in order to continue telling their shared history.

When the property on which the house has stood was sold recently to the Mancini Development Company, the house did not fit into the plans for an upscale development composed of estate-sized homes. Recognizing the historic importance of the house, the Mancini brothers offered it to the City of Bloomfield Hills for $1 provided that the City would move it elsewhere by Spring of 2008.

Hills' Mayor Pat Hardy contacted Historical Society President Pam Carmichael, Township Supervisor Dave Payne and Schools Superintendent Steve Gaynor to determine the possibility of moving the farmhouse about a mile north to the School District's Bowers Farm.

In October 2007, all four bodies met in an unprecedented joint public meeting to discuss how to save the building, one of the last remaining examples of an architectural form that was once called "America's National Style" and particularly prevalent throughout Michigan during the middle of the 1800s.

Built as early as 1832, presumably by pioneer farmer James Benjamin, on a hundred acres of land adjoining the Bloomfield Centre Road (now Long Lake Road), the house has been home to a small number of owners. Their history exemplifies the changes in Oakland County's Bloomfield area from primarily rural and agricultural to country estates owned by some of the Detroit area's most prominent families, to a comfortable suburban community.

By the early part of the Twentieth Century three sisters, heirs of George Hendrie the "Father of Detroit's Street Railways" and one of the wealthiest men of his generation, bought the farmhouse and turned it into a country retreat and gathering place for their friends and relatives from Grosse Pointe. Jessie, Margaret and Sarah Hendrie were well known in Grosse Pointe for their many charitable activities - and for their love of riding and hunting. Along with their brothers George T. and William they were instrumental in founding the Bloomfield Open Hunt Club, across Long Lake Road from the home they chose to name The Covert.

In 1937, open ground for riding and hunting was diminishing as much of the neighboring farmland was being turned into smaller homesites. The Hendries sold the house to Carl O. Barton, founder of Barton Malow Construction. For the next seventy years the house was home to Carl and his family who lived a comfortable life among nearly 25 acres of woods, streams and gardens.

Time being of the essence, the 4-B's decided to hold their first-time joint meeting to determine both interest and feasibility. As a result of the meeting, the School Board voted to provide space in a newly created Bowers Farm Historic Park. By finally having a Farmhouse at the 85-acre Farm, numerous opportunities would be created to show children of all ages what life was like as Bloomfield, and the County as a whole, grew into maturity. It is also anticipated that once the house is moved it will become "home" to the Bloomfield Historical Society.

While researching the history of the house and the Bowers Farm, Society members discovered that half of the Farm was once owned by George T. Hendrie, brother of the Hendrie sisters. In a sense, then, the house will be staying in the family.

In November the 4-B's had a community-wide Open (Farm)House to show more than 400 residents of the area what had been hidden in their midst for more than a century and a half. More than $5,000 was raised as "seed money" to get the project started. It was important for the local community to understand what was involved because funding for relocating the house to its new site would be sought entirely from the private sector.

A new non-profit organization, Preservation Bloomfield, has been established by leaders of the Charter Township of Bloomfield, the City of Bloomfield Hills, the Bloomfield Hills School District and the Bloomfield Historical Society.

Now, with a June timetable for the move ahead of them, the 4-B's are actively soliciting the approximately $500,000 in cash and in-kind donations from citizens as well as local businesses that it is anticipated it will take to relocate the House on the Farm. Anyone interested in contributing to saving and preserving the historic Benjamin-Barton House can contact us here.

• News
• Contact Us

The Farmhouse Returns to the Farm

JOIN US FOR GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY ON MONDAY!

Monday, July 7 at 10AM at the Windmill at the Bowers Farm at Square Lake and Squirrel. A short ceremony dedicating the new site of the Barton Farmhouse.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Betsy Erikson, 248-341-5422, berikson@bloomfield.org

Historic Barton House to hit the road:
Community invited to “ride” along as a celebration and fundraiser

Save The Barton Farmhouse -- A Letter to the Editor

A letter to the Birmingham Eccentric, Thursday June 26, 2008

A rare opportunity to contribute to generations of area residents to come is on the verge of being lost.

Preservation Bloomfield, an unprecedented union of government, schools and the public, is running out of time to save one of the first real homes built in this area. This is a chance to leave a vital legacy of those who made our area. Only if we honor and preserve the past, respecting the lessons that can be learned by the struggle to get from where we were to where we are, can we hope to be remembered ourselves as a generation that continued to shape the community of the future.

Why save this house? Two hundred years ago, this Oakland County area was frontier. A few trails cut across unsurveyed woods connecting remote forts and fur outposts. Twenty-five years later, a burgeoning community of farms and scattered villages that are today towns like Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Franklin, Southfield and Troy, had exploded across the virgin countryside. The swamps and forest were gone, replaced by open fields dotted with cabins and small homes much like the ones these settlers left behind when traveling here to tame new lands as their grandparents had done out east. Where Long Lake Road curved north away from swampland, to end at the Ogden farm on toady's Square Lake Road, a classic revival home, typical of the best of the era, began as home to such a family. It remains a sole survivor today, but only for a couple weeks longer unless action is taken now.

It is not often that we in industrialized society get to do anything that will last for generations.

The economy is tough. Everyone is fighting $4 gas and skyrocketing food costs. But this unique opportunity will not come again. If everyone will just search their hearts, and under their couch cushions, a contribution of loose change from everyone who reads this would be enough to make a huge difference. Please go to www.preservationbloomfield.com and help in any way that you can.

Ron Berndt, councilman

Village of Beverly Hills

What is Preservation Bloomfield anyway?

What is Preservation Bloomfield, anyway?
It’s an unprecedented coming together of leaders of the Charter Township of Bloomfield, the City of Bloomfield Hills, the Bloomfield Hills School District and the Bloomfield Historical Society to form a Michigan non-profit corporation.
The Mission of Preservation Bloomfield is, quite simply, to preserve our heritage and build community.
We have a rich heritage in Bloomfield.
• We were one of only two townships in all of Oakland County when it was formed.
• Early exploration of Bloomfield was undertaken by a party of distinguished Michiganders that included: Territorial Governor Lewis Cass; our Representative to the still-young U.S. Congress Austin Eli Wing; The Reverend Mr. John Monteith, founder of the University of Michigan.
• Our first Post Office was in the home of Dr. Ezra Parke and was probably visited by young Alexis de Tocqueville. Dr. Parke’s grandson went on to found Parke Davis.
• We were a highly successful agricultural community and often exported foodstuffs to markets in the East and Chicago, even internationally.
• In the early 20th Century we began the transition from agriculture to the stately manor homes of wealthy residents of Detroit and Grosse Pointe. One of these further developed into the Cranbrook Educational Community.
• We’ve been home to Presidential candidates (the Romneys – father and son), comedians (Robin Williams), the Queen of Soul and Isaiah Thomas – among many other notables.
Preservation Bloomfield is currently involved in preserving and restoring
• the historic 1859 Stone Schoolhouse at Wing Lake,
• the 1830’s Craig Log Cabin
• the 1830’s Benjamin-Barton House
… each of which will contribute to the education of elementary students and others throughout the community as well as serve as community resources for small groups.
Please let us know if you have any questions about Bloomfield’s history or if you’d care to contribute to it by sending us e-mail at:
info@preservationbloomfield.org
Thank you.

News of the Benjamin-Barton House goes international

Garrison Keillor, Creator and Host of A Prairie Home Companion (heard statewide on Michigan Radio and internationally through the auspices of Public Radio International) said the following on his program broadcast live from Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor Saturday, June 14:

"Ann Arbor has a number of early 1800's Greek Revival homes while Bloomfield is trying to save one of its last. Its story can be found at www.preservationbloomfield.org."

Why Preserve the Barton House?

One of the two leading Preservation Architects in the State, Ron Campbell AIA, tells why saving the Benjamin-Barton House is important to us all.

The other leading Preservation Architect in the State, Gene Hopkins FAIA, is working hard with Preservation Bloomfield to save and restore it for the community.