PRESERVATION BLOOMFIELD

Save The Date For Beehive V

2012-01-30T09:12:00.000-05:00

The Friends of Preservation Bloomfield invite you to mark your calendar now for Beehive V on May 11 at the Townsend Hotel. To get the ball rolling, loads of entertainment, fine food and the best of company are already in the mix. Don't miss the social event of the season! Formal invites and more details to follow.

Gingerbread Brunch and Family Hour 2011

2011-12-12T11:59:00.001-05:00

Gingerbread Photos

Julie Allen and Holiday Market took the prize for Best of Show at
Gingerbread Brunch IV
hosted by the Friends of Preservation Bloomfield

Here's a link to more photos: Carol DeWeese's Album

Family Hour Photos

Gingerbread Brunch 2011

Live Auction Added to Gingerbread Brunch

2011-12-04T09:14:00.001-05:00

Two "Don't Miss" items will be sold
to the highest bidder at a live auction
to be held at the Gingerbread Brunch
on Friday, December 8.
Written and sealed bids are being accepted

up to the time the auction begins
which is expected to be around 11 a.m.

To purchase rapidly evaporating tickets to attend the brunch,
contact Pam Budde
248-642-7806 or pambudde@msn.com.

To submit a sealed bid or bid by phone during the auction,
contact Bee Engelhart
248-647-5606 or bengelhart@comcast.net

Don't Miss Bidding on these Items!

4 Club Level Tickets, Lions versus San Diego Chargers

Section 233, row 2, seats 12, 13, 14, and 15

38" tall tabletop tree lushly decorated 360 degrees
around with exquisite wine-themed ornaments

Gingerbread Brunch & Family Hour 2011

2011-11-23T15:56:00.003-05:00

Heralded as one of the "sweetest events" of the holiday season, our annual Gingerbread House Brunch is scheduled for Friday, December 9 from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at a local country club. More than two dozen whimsical gingerbread houses created by local professional and non-professional pastry chefs will be on display, judged for awards and available for purchase through a silent auction, along with many other unusual holiday decor and gift items. The Brunch, emceed by Fox News celebrity Monica Gayle, will offer gourmet fare.

This annual event has been so well received that a "Family Preview Evening" for parents and their children will precede it on Thurday, December 8, from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. This family event includes a dinner buffet with Mr. and Mrs. Claus, plus crafts, games and an opportunity for budding chefs to decorate a gingerbread creation of their own.

Funds raised at the Brunch and Family Event will help the Friends of Preservation Bloomfield continue the restoration of the historic Barton Farmhouse located at the Charles L. Bowers School Farm in Bloomfield Hills.

Tickets for Gingerbread House Brunch, chaired by Deneil Dall'Olmo, are $75. Tickets for the “Family Preview Evening," chaired by Carol Shaya, are $60 for adults and $30 for children. For location and to make reservations, call 248.594.0692 or 248.642.6923.

Both events are sponsored by HOUR magazine.

Evening at Highgate

2011-09-16T11:24:00.010-04:00

Bobbi and Stephen Polk invite you be
their very special guest for

"An Evening at Highgate"

Friday, September 30, 2011

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

111 Lone Pine Road

Wine & elegant hors d'oeuvres

Roaring 20's dress encouraged . . . not required

Entertainment by pianist Curtis Posuniak

Assisting are Bobbi's fellow Friends of Preservation Bloomfield and party planners extraordinaire,
Duffy Wineman, Nancy Boos, Patti Jessup, Judy Anderson, Carol Shaya, Shirley Maddalena, Sue Nine and Pat Hardy

Proceeds from this ticket only event benefit the work of Preservation Bloomfield to restore and preserve
the Barton Farmhouse and the Craig Log Cabin

$125 per person

R.S.V.P. to Patti Jessup at: patjessup@aol.com
Tickets are limited!

Corn Roast 2011

2011-08-23T18:25:00.007-04:00

Attendees of the 2011 Corn Roast were able, for the first time, to walk on the newly installed plank floor of the Craig Log Cabin and view the interior renovations (as well as the exterior ones) that have been made in the past year. The seed of the idea to hold the first Corn Roast in 2009 was to pay the expenses of maintaining and repairing the cabin and since then, the event has grown in scope and size. Kudos to the board of Bloomfield Preservation which includes representatives from The City of Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills Schools, Bloomfield Historical Society and the Friends of Preservation Bloomfield for planning and executing a top-notch event. Click on the video below to see more of the Corn Roast 2011.

Corn Roast 2011

2011-07-27T11:54:00.010-04:00

click on the above poster to enlarge

Sponsors Needed

Preservation Bloomfield is a consortium of the City of Bloomfield Hills, the Township of Bloomfield, the Bloomfield Hills School District and the Bloomfield Historical Society, formed and responsible for saving and moving the historic Barton Farmhouse and the Craig Log Cabin to the Bowers School Farm in 2008. It works in tandem with the Friends of Preservation Bloomfield, a group of dedicated volunteers, to raise funds for the restoration of both buildings, which will ultimately be used for the educational and social enrichment of the community- at- large.

This coming Sunday, August 2l, the Board and the Friends will hold their annual Corn Roast fund raiser at the farm, and it is our hope that you will consider joining our fund raising efforts by being a sponsor of the Corn Roast at the $100 level. If you contribute to the event, your name/logo will appear on the Schedule of Events each attendee will receive upon arrival, as well as on a large poster board near the sign-in table for participants to see, and two complimentary adult tickets will be reserved for you.

The enclosed flier lists some of the enjoyable activities taking place that day. Joining us on site will give you a perfect opportunity to see the progress we are making on these two historic treasures and meet others who are helping us achieve our restoration goals. Every penny raised brings us that much closer to officially opening our doors for community enjoyment.

Thank you so much for considering our request!

Sincerely,

Friends of Preservation Bloomfield

Beehive Ball IV

2011-07-27T11:53:00.010-04:00

May 2011, The Village Club

SAVE THE DATE! BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW! DONATE!

2011-03-02T08:17:00.013-05:00

The Bees are Buzzin' for Beehive Ball IV!

Friday the 13th could be your lucky day . . . that’s if you come at 6 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011 to Beehive Ball IV at The Village Club. Similar to last year, the evening will include a silent and live auction, a seated dinner, entertainment by Rennie Kaufmann and a few surprises. We’re counting on you to come to the Ball and bring friends. You won’t be sorry!

The Auction Committee needs traditional silent auction items such as theme baskets, gift certificates, theatre and movie tickets, restaurant certificates, wine etc. We will take anything you have to offer—cooking classes, golf outings, bridge lessons . . . no good deed, idea or item will be turned down.

Naturally, we also need items for the Live Auction — once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, a stay at a vacation home, popular sports tickets, and golf outings are always popular. A Mystery Trip to Hamtramck or some other destination might be fun. Auctioneer Ed Cherney intends to keeps it lively and fast, because, if the past is any predictor, our items will be few but good.

If YOU help, we’ll all benefit, but the happiest recipient will the charming little Barton Farmhouse located at the Bowers School Farm since all proceeds will go toward its restoration.

Contact us to attend or donate

Tickets
c% Pam Budde
pambudde@msn.com
248-642-7806

Sponsorships and Donations

C% Patti Jessup, co-chair

patjessup@aol.com

Publicity

Lisa Yamin, co-chair
lisa.yamin@gm.com

Other

Bee Engelhart, chair
bengelhart@comcast.net

Gingerbread Brunch III 2010

2011-03-02T08:14:00.005-05:00

The Detroit News

December 6, 2010
Section: Features
Page: A2

The Friends of Preservation Bloomfield held a Gingerbread Brunch last week and drew a full house of 250 people. For some, the main object was to raise money to restore a log cabin and a farmhouse that have been in the area for 160 years, which is even longer than Bill Bonds.

A house for a house Neal Rubin The Detroit News

For others, it was to stare slack-jawed at the wonders chefs and bakers can create with gingerbread, spice drops, peppermints, frosting, slivered almonds and some architectural blueprints, plus expertise and about 12 hours.

As someone who leans strongly toward saving history instead of bulldozing it, I wondered how the Friends of Preservation made their case in an era of troubled economies and cranky citizens.

As the most uniquely unqualified of the three gingerbread judges, I bake even more poorly and rarely than I cook. I also wondered how the heck the sous chef from the host Oakland Hills Country Club built a 5-foot-tall Eiffel Tower. The tower only earned an honorable mention, a solid indicator of how spectacular the other entries were. It was an eminently fulfilling morning, even if the gingerbread houses aren't edible and I couldn't stay for the crepes.

Sweet, sweet details

One of the other judges was Michael Koch, a vice president at the Morley Candy Co. "It's amazing what they can do with frostings," he said at one point as he poked at a peppermint-striped pillar.

The third [judge] was Daniel MacLeish of MacLeish Building in Troy. "From a technical standpoint," he said of the Santa's Workshop by Melanie Weidmayer of Manchester Bakery, "she got it right." He was particularly taken by the supports in the corners and the tools hung on the walls. For posterity's sake, there may be gingerbread historians taking note. Weidmayer won second place, behind a sprawling mansion by Patricia Duda of Pine Lake Country Club that used ribbon candy as smoke rising from the chimney.

In the gingerbread game, much as in historic preservation, it's about the details. If you are replacing logs on the Craig Log Cabin, for instance, you need to chop down the trees in the winter, when the sap has fled the wood. Not only are the logs less likely to warp that way, they're lighter to carry. Smart folks, those settlers - - which is one of the things the preservationists like to be able to point out.

Learning from the past

The Gingerbread Brunch raised $20,000 or so toward the renovation of the cabin and the Federalist-style Barton Farmhouse. Both have been relocated to the Bowers School Farm, a land laboratory for Bloomfield Hills Schools that's said to be one of only three working school farms in the United States.

The Friends of Preservation Bloomfield use only private money, providing a level of immunity from any grousing about who needs some old dumb farmhouse anyway. Other worthy projects in less tony areas might not be able to say the same, but there's a value to being able to compare then and now. "We need to understand how ingenuity has helped us grow," said school board member Cynthia von Oeyen, and how we've grown, period. Those ceilings seem low for a reason.

Christine Zambrecki, the former Henry Ford Health System COO who chaired the event, said she has given long thought to the term "landscape" and decided she's a bigger fan of the second syllable than the first.

Scape is a sense of place, she said, of culture and history and belonging. "It's preserving the human-ness of a place," she contended.

That's not always easy, either with wood or with gingerbread and shredded coconut, but it's worth it.

nrubin@detnews.com

(313) 222-1874

Neal Rubin

Barton Farmhouse Gets New Windows

2011-02-25T19:12:00.006-05:00

http://vimeo.com/14036244

Thank you to our many supporters for making the window replacement possible.

Save the Date for Beehive Ball III Friday, May 14, 2010

2011-02-21T10:40:00.006-05:00

Beehive Ball III will be held on Friday, May 14th, 2010. Information and the invitation/response card can be found in the Preservation Bloomfield Newsletter link to the left of this article. To attend, please print a copy of the RSVP card, and return the card and your check to: Christine Zambricki, 1770 Hillwood Drive, Bloomfields Hills, Michigan 48304. Feel free to note any special requests for seating when sending in the response card.

Tickets are $75.00 (patron) and $100 (benefactor) and include a lovely evening of h'or douvres, dinner, silent and live auctions, music and dancing and best of all, happy times and fun. Watch for the beehive themed cake designed by a local world-renowned sugar artist.

This annual event is the premier dinner/dance organized by the Friends of Preservation Bloomfield. Fund raising has never been so much fun and this is a great chance to see neighbors and friends while at the same time investing in our heritage through ticket sales.

The Village Club provides a perfect setting for an evening of cocktails, dinner, dancing and a spectacular silent auction. We are happy to announce that Rennie Kaufman, will provide his unique and talented one man band entertainment. Rennie is well known in our community as the musician who can play anything and make it sound great.

Beehive Ball lII - Save the Barton Farmhouse!

2011-02-21T10:39:00.006-05:00

Friends and supporters are flocking to the BeeHive Ball III, the annual major fundraiser for Preservation Bloomfield. The event will be held at the Village Club on Friday, May 14th from 6 - 10pm. Everyone interested in our historical roots is invited to join the fun.

The Barton Farmhouse Project

2011-02-21T10:33:00.002-05:00

The story of all great civilizations can be told through their art and architecture. The Barton Farmhouse is telling ours. The simple, Greek Revival lines of the house reflects the ideals of a young, struggling nation, less that fifty years old when the house was built. It is representative of the ideals of democracy and the eagerness and determination of the populace that moved into the unsettled Michigan Territory.

The hand-hewn beams were made from natural resources that were once bountiful but are no longer available. The simple, yet strong, mortise and tenon construction show the craftsmanship of a vanished skill. A name etched into a window pane marks the joy and aspiration of a young woman on her wedding day. The care taken as the house expanded and aged tells us that beauty and culture were appreciated.

The lives of the families who have called the Barton Farmhouse "home" give us a glimpse of the development of the Bloomfield area as it evolved from farmland to a fashionable "country" address to a suburn neighborhoods.

On November 10, 1821, John Wetmore of New York registered his purchase of 160 acres on (what is now) the south side of Long Lake Road between Kensington and Squirrel roads. Some time later, Wetmore sold the property to a young James D. Benjamin.   Most likely it was Benjamin who built the original farmhouse. It was constructed in the Greek Revival style, the dominant American domestic architecture of the period between 1830 and 1860. Greek Revival was so popular that it is known as the National Style.

Bloomfield was a quiet rural farm community. Until well past the Civil War, Oakland County farmers tilled more land than in any other county in Michigan, grew more potatoes, corn and wheat (exported to world markets as a top-grade product). They churned more butter and herded more cattle.

That was about to change. Detroit was a city of 50,000. From the mid-1850s, Detroit experienced rapid growth. George Hendrie, with several friends, arrived in Detroit from Canada and assumed an important role in the industrial development of the city. They became prosperous multi-millionaires as Detroit grew to more than a million inhabitants and transporation between Detroit and Blomfield improved.

The prospect of an easy commute to a "country home" set the stage for large farmsteads to be converted to country estates.  A 1920s edition of "The Social Secretary" lists: "Country Home: Hunting Hall, RFD No. 2, Bloomfield Hills". That was the home of George Hendrie's son William who located next to his brother George Trowbridge Hendrie. Their spinster sisters Margaret and Sarah acquired the nearby farmhouse (now the Barton Farmhouse) and many of the surrounding acres. They called their country estate The Covert.   The Hendrie sisters were well-educated and world-traveled, and brought much to the community.

Across Long Lake Road was the Bloomfield Open Hunt Club. The original 1834 Hagerman farmhouse had become its first clubhouse. John and Mary Pathcet arrived in Birmingham from England in the 1830s with their son David and his young family. Two of David's daughters, Elizabeth and Emma, married into other early families - the Hagermans and the Heacocks - and located adjacent to the Farmhouse. George Trowbridge Hendrie and his brother William were on the founding executive committee. Riding trails ran throughout the area.

In 1937, Margaret Hendrie and her sister Sarah sold The Covert and several acres to Carol O. Barton who with his family treasured the house and its nearby 25 acres for seventy years. Bloomfield Hills had become a city. Barton was co-founder of the internationally known Barton Malow construction company which the year before had just achieved more than a million dollars in sales. During the years that his family owned the house, the company continued to grow, weathering the Depression and the Second World War.  Barton was known for his honesty and for his ability to infuse his company with the essence of his personal philosophy, civic mindedness and philanthropic principles which continue through today.

In           ,                         purchased the property and graciously offered the Barton Farmhouse to the community for $1.   The Friends of Preservation Bloomfield were assigned the task of raising the funds to move the house from its original location to the Bowers Farm which is owned by the Bloomfield Hills School District and located about one mile north on Square Lake Road.  The house is currently being renovated with a historical approach. The Barton Farmhouse Project will be funded by contributions from private citizens, businesses and charitable foundations.

Craig Log Cabin Restoration in Full Shave

2011-02-21T08:10:00.014-05:00

Kevin Brennan shaves a winter-cut log

As the sap begins to flow in area trees, Kevin Brennan, a craftsman working on the renovation of the historic Craig Log Cabin, explains that the best time to cut down trees for a log cabin is in the winter, when the sap has gone out of the trees. “The logs are less likely to warp, and they’re lighter." Brennan was passing along this bit of woodland lore as he used an aged, but well cared-for, Wilkinson draw knife or bark-shaver on a winter-cut log. It would replace one of the 150-plus year-old original logs in the log cabin that had finally succumbed to the effects of weather.

In less than a month the log cabin, one of Bloomfield Township’s oldest structures, should be looking more presentable. It was moved last fall from its original location on Lone Pine Road to a new home on the Bowers Farm. Along with a few replacement logs it will also have a “new” roof of reclaimed hand-hewn cedar shakes. Still more restoration work will be done as additional funds are raised.

The cabin and the Barton Farmhouse are projects of Preservation Bloomfield, a joint effort of Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Hills Schools and the Bloomfield Historical Society to preserve some of the area’s past to inform its future.

Kevin and Team Replace a Log

Old and New Tools

Bloomfield Township

August 27, 2008

Township agrees on spending to save log cabin

By Eric Czarnik
C & G Staff Writer

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — An old log cabin will get a new home on the Bowers School Farm after the Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously on a bid project to relocate the building.

The log cabin has stood near Lone Pine and Franklin roads. The property owners want to redevelop the land and are donating the cabin to the farm, which is owned by Bloomfield Hills Schools.

Township Supervisor David Payne said preserving the cabin is worthwhile because it was built in the 1830s and is part of the area’s history. “It’s one of the oldest structures in the township,” he said.

According to Payne, Bloomfield Township agreed to pay for the cabin’s move because of an approaching Aug. 31 deadline. But in the long run, the township does not expect to be holding the bill.

“We have an agreement with Preservation Bloomfield to reimburse us for the cost over a period of time,” Payne said.

Preservation Bloomfield, a fundraising group, wants the cabin on the farm because it can teach children about life in the old days. For the same reason, the group was behind the successful push to move the 1832 Barton Farmhouse from Bloomfield Hills to the Bowers Farm. The farmhouse’s oldest two sections were transported to the new site by truck in July.

In early August, the township received two construction bids for the cabin relocation, and officials picked the low bid of Brock & Associates of Novi. The company wanted $49,700, whereas Peerless Improvements Inc. of Bloomfield Township wanted $61,760.

During the meeting, Township Clerk Jan Roncelli wondered why Frank Rewold and Son Inc. did not bid, since it just handled the Barton Farmhouse relocation. “I thought they would’ve given us a great deal,” she said.

But consultant Gene Hopkins said the company’s involvement would’ve probably raised the price tag despite the project’s small scope.

The cabin relocation will remove the house’s roof and fireplace, the latter of which was deemed anachronistic. The building will travel to the farm and be placed on new foundations. The company will also place temporary roof protection on top of the cabin to protect it from the elements.

“We’ve done the minimal amount to get it there, stabilize it, weather-proof it and make it secure for future reconstruction,” Hopkins said.

According to a map provided with the plans, the cabin will go to a spot on Bowers Farm east of the farmhouse, the windmill, the root cellar and the gazebo. Hopkins said the cabin could amplify the farmhouse’s ability to teach children.

“It could be a natural progression in the chronology of the community,” he said.

Typically, a pioneering family would build a log house as a short-term dwelling place and would later build a farmhouse once the property prospered, said Pam Carmichael, head of the Bloomfield Historical Society. Although the log cabin and the Barton Farmhouse were built by different people, she said the two types of buildings share a story about the Bloomfield area’s first settlers.

“The fact that it still exists in this period of time is really unusual,” she said.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Eric Czarnik at eczarnik@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1058 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (586)498-1058 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

The Barton Farmhouse Gets Dressed For The Holidays

2011-02-21T08:09:00.006-05:00

Many of the old stones were used for the new foundation

The "old girl" gets settled in her new home at the Bowers Farm. The new foundation, using many of the stones from the original Barton site, nearly completes Phase One of the Barton Farmhouse.

Phase Two: Restoration involves adapting the house to its new roles as educator and community center. Funds for Phase Two: Restoration are being sought from foundations and other grant sources as well as from the local community -- both public and private sources.

Businesses interested in participating either by providing services or developing in-kind marketing partnerships are invited to contact Preservation Bloomfield via e-mail to info@preservationbloomfield.org.

Thank You!

2011-02-21T08:08:00.002-05:00

The Barton Farmhouse
is moved to the Bowers Farm

It's THERE!

The Barton Farmhouse has come back to a farm. Both sections made it successfully and are awaiting a permanent foundation.

Thank you so much to all of you who have contributed to the enormous success of Part One from all of us at Preservation Bloomfield and the Save the Barton Farmhouse Committee.

Now comes the fun part. We need to put everything together again so that it becomes a living symbol of what a community can do to preserve its heritage and build for its future.

If you haven't contributed yet, or even if you have, think about adding some more (the Make a Donation button is over there on the left).

Come drive by what you've accomplished and see its potential.

It's a marvelous story and it's all yours!

After The Groundbreaking

2011-02-21T08:07:00.005-05:00

Excavation at the Bowers Farm

By Wednesday afternoon, July 9, excavation for the new basement for the Barton Farmhouse at the Bowers Farm had been completed. Two sections of the old house were separted from the c 1920 additions and were on 'cribs' awaiting the move.

House on cribs

Historic Barton House To Hit The Road

2011-02-21T08:02:00.001-05:00

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
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (7-2-08) – Long Lake, Eastways and Square Lake roads are lovely tree-lined thoroughfares occasionally traversed by slow-moving vehicles – but nary a slow-moving house.
At 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 15, however, a 19th-century historic home will make more history as it slowly and proudly glides about one mile to a new site. The 150-year-old home will be lifted from its perch on Long Lake Road just west of Eastways to a new educational park at the Bowers School Farm on Square Lake Road.
Community members are invited to celebrate and witness this important occasion in the Keep Us Moving Fun Walk. Anyone who is interested may walk behind the 1832 farmhouse as it travels from its long-standing location to its new home. Donations to Preservation Bloomfield will be gratefully accepted.
In the event of rain, the move and fun walk will occur on Wednesday, July 16.
The move will cap the first phase of an intense effort by Preservation Bloomfield, a new coalition of representatives from the City of Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills Schools and the Bloomfield Historical Society to raise enough money to move, restore and open the home to students and visitors. In six months the group has raised $200,000, with donations still being realized, almost all from individual donors and in-kind contributions.
At least another $100,000 is needed to make the house usable and accessible to the community, much of which is hoped to come from community and corporate foundations who have an interest in education and sustainable agriculture.
“We’ve been awed and thrilled with the way that our neighbors have stepped up to support preserving this historic jewel,” said Pat Hardy, Bloomfield Hills city commissioner. “Raising this much money in just eight months or so is a phenomenal testimonial to the values of our community.”
More than 500 individuals have contributed to Preservation Bloomfield so far. Utility companies Comcast, AT&T and DTE have also made in-kind contributions to the effort.
For more information contact Pat Hardy at 248-642-6923, or visit http://www.preservationbloomfield.org/.
Posted on 02 Jul 2008 by editor

Save The Barton Farmhouse

2011-02-21T08:00:00.001-05:00

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

News of the Barton Farmhouse Goes International

2011-02-21T07:59:00.001-05:00

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."

Founding of Preservation Bloomfield

2011-02-21T07:53:00.006-05:00

Question: 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"? Answer: The Barton Farmhouse, an 1830's Greek Revival house that must be saved in order to continue telling their shared history.

The House awaits removal to a new home at the Bowers Farm

When the property upon which the Barton House stood was sold to the Mancini Development Company, the house did not fit into the plan for an upscale development 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 the spring of 2008.

Pat Hardy

Hills' Mayor Pat Hardy contacted Bloomfield Historic Society President Pam Carmichael, Bloomfield Township Supervisor Dave Payne and Bloomfield Hills Schools Superintendent Steve Gaynor to determine the feasibility of moving the house to the Bowers School Farm.

In October 2007, the four bodies met in an unprecedented joint public meeting to discuss how to save the Barton Farmhouse, one of the last remaining examples of an architectural form that was once called "America's National Style" and particularly prevalent throughout Michigan in the middle of the 19th century.

The Barton Farmhouse was built as early as 1832, presumably by pioneer farmer James Benjamin, on a hundred acres of land adjoining the old Bloomfield Centre Road (now Long Lake Road). Since then, the house has been home to only a small number of owners, yet their history exemplifies the changes in the Bloomfield area from rural and agricultural to country estates owned by prominent Detroit families, to suburban community.

In the early 20th 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. Jessie, Margaret and Sarah Hendrie were 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 on the north side of Long Lake Road. They called their country home "The Covert."

1937, open ground for riding and hunting was diminishing as neighboring farmland was divided into smaller home sites. 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.

1937

With Mancini Development's deadline looming, the 4 B's held their historic meeting. As a result, the School Board voted to provide space in a newly-created Bowers Farm Historic Park. Bringing a beautifully preserved 1830's farmhouse to the 85-acre Bowers Farm would provide numerous opportunities to educate children about life in and the growth of Bloomfield area.

While researching the history of the house, Bloomfield Historic Society members discovered a connection to the Bowers Farm. George T. Hendrie, brother of the three Hendrie sisters, had been a half-owner of the Bowers Farm.

In November, 2007, the 4-B's had hosted an open house to share with area residents what had been hidden in their midst. Donations were accepted and over $5,000 was raised to start the project to move the house to the Bowers Farm Historic Park.

At this time, the 4 B's formed a non-profit organization, Preservation Bloomfield. Preservation Bloomfield was given the task of moving the house and restoring it without the use of public funds. All the money raised would come from the private sector.

Preservation Bloomfield is formed

With a June deadline to accomplish the move, Preservation Bloomfield solicited approximately $500,000 from citizens an local businesses.

Why Save The Barton House?

2011-02-21T06:53:00.003-05:00

Why Preserve the Barton House?
by Ronald R. Campbell, AIA
Principal Planner/Preservation Architect
Oakland County Planning and Economic Development

History is who we were, who we are and who we will be. The stories of all great civilizations are told through their art and architecture. The intentional destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan by the Taliban in 2001 is used world wide to illustrate the distorted ideology of a society which has no regard for its heritage and cultural resources. An extreme example, yes … but, should the intentional destruction of local heritage and cultural resources be reasoned to a different conclusion? Is the destruction of a resource for ideological reasons worse than destruction of a resource because the citizens would not contribute to its survival at a cost of $4.25 per resident? Approximately the same cost to a family as going out for a fast food dinner. (Based on the rounded up figure of $200,000 that is additionally needed ÷ the population of the City and Township of 46,900.)

The simple Greek Revival lines of the Barton House reflect the ideals of a young, struggling nation, less than fifty years old when the house was built. This house reflects the eagerness and determination of this country’s populace to carry the ideals of democracy even into the unsettled regions of the Michigan Territory. Its hand hewn beams reflect the technology of the day and natural resources that were once bountiful but are now no longer available. The simple and strong mortise and tenon construction reflects the craftsmanship of a vanished skill. The name etched into the window pane reflects the joy and aspirations of a young woman on her wedding day. The care in which it has been expanded and maintained shows the appreciation of beauty and culture across time and generations. Does the Barton House tell a story? Yes; it tells the founding story of our community. Why preserve it? Because it is beautiful.

Saving and adaptively using the Barton House at Bowers Farm will provide a tangible link between past and present. It will say that we are a community which believes that our heritage is important. It will say that this place is special; that there is permanence in things, especially in things that are done right. It will say that we are a generation of understanding, a generation that is beginning to confront the limits of our natural resources. That we are a generation which re-cycles more than aluminum cans and which strives to conserve the energies and resources embodied in our built environment. It will say that we are a creative generation, saving buildings as reservoirs of memories and as part of our collective responsibility to future generations.

John Ruskin wrote in Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849):
"It is no question of expediency or feeling whether we shall preserve the buildings of past times or not. We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong, partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us. The dead still have their rights to them: that which they labored for. . . we have no right to throw down; but what other men gave their strength, and wealth and life to accomplish, their right over does not pass away with their death; still less is the right to the use of what they have left vested in us only. It belongs to all their successors."

“Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.” Winston ChurchillSaving and adaptively using the Barton House will “cultivate narratives of place in a way that strengthens human connections to place and promotes a greater understanding of what it means to take hold of a place.” The preservation of the Barton House will uniquely provide the opportunity to teach across all three of the learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. With creatively, the preservation of the Barton House, will provide object lessons in history, science, math, art and literature. It will provide a visual resource for teaching knowledge and skills to students of all ages. It will enhance individual identity through experiences and memories. Is it important to save the Barton House? What legacy do you leave if you don’t?