Leelanau County’s historic Poor Farm Barn will host some of the area’s finest musicians at a string of three fund-raising concerts beginning on Wednesday, July 29, with subsequent concerts scheduled for Aug. 12 and Aug. 26. These Picnic Concerts are being organized by the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society to help fund the last big item needed to open the barn to wider community use—a set of bathrooms.
The public is invited to tour Leelanau County’s Historic Poor Farm Barn on Saturday, June 13 from 3-5 pm. The nonprofit charged with restoring and repurposing the Poor Farm Barn is hosting an open house to showcase the restoration and re-purposing work recently completed. Leaders of the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society will be on hand to guide the tours and answer questions about the past, present, and future of this community treasure. Visitors will also be offered home-baked cookies and yard games.
In collaboration with the Leelanau County Solid Waste Council, a workshop for backyard composters will be held at the Poor Farm Barn Gardens on Wednesday, May 29, from 9 am to noon. This hands on composting educational program will help you divert organic material from your kitchen and backyard to build rich compost for many home planting projects. The Poor Farm Barn gardens are located across from Myles Kimmerly Park on County Road 616, or Burdickville Road, just west of Maple City.
May is National Historic Preservation Month, a time set aside to highlight the important work of organizations working to preserve historic places like Port Oneida. Locally, in Leelanau County, there are 25 nationally recognized historic places and 18 additional state recognized historic sites, with several organizations which operate to support their preservation. Mae Stier writes that she and her husband Tim Egeler—a descendent of the Egelers and Kelderhouses, who were early settlers to Leelanau—spent the summer leading up to their wedding learning the names of family members. “When we committed to creating our future together, we did so by standing under a giant old oak tree that looked out at the Manitou Islands, on a farmstead that members of his family had once cared for.”
WCMU Public Television will air Saving the Barn: The Leelanau County Poor Farm, a locally produced documentary on the history, preservation, and future of the Leelanau County Poor Farm/County Infirmary. The film is a multi-year project of the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society (LCHPS) and videographer, Joe Vandermeulen. WCMU Public Television has scheduled three broadcast times in March for Saving the Barn: The Leelanau County Farm: Sunday, March 17, at 6:30 pm; Thursday, March 21 at 5 am; and Saturday, March 23 at 10:30 am. The film will be subtitled. Click here to view a 30-second preview.
A Plow Day groundbreaking ceremony and celebration of National Historic Preservation Month will take place at the Leelanau County Poor Farm Barn in Myles Kimmerly Park near Maple City on Saturday, May 25, from 10 am until noon.
The Poor Farm Barn near Maple City, saved by the Leelanau County Historical Preservation Society, gets help from community partners including Buckets of Rain.
The “poor farm barn” is the last remnant of what was once a haven for Leelanau County’s indigent residents who worked there raising crops, chickens and cattle in return for a place to live.