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.

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