{"id":1299,"date":"2022-10-20T20:52:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T20:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/?page_id=1299"},"modified":"2022-10-20T20:52:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T20:52:32","slug":"the-dicks-barn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/the-dicks-barn\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dicks Barn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Carolyn Dicks Barn<\/strong><\/p>\n

11000 Willow Road, Clinton MI<\/strong><\/p>\n

Built by C. Deloss Le Baron or William Reiser circa 1880<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Carolyn Dicks was born on Willow Road and still makes her home \u201cjust down the road\u201d.  She loves her farm and its \u201ccathedral\u201d, a beautiful, classic 3 bay barn featuring hand hewn timber framing, a raised field stone foundation and a strikingly tall white exterior.<\/p>\n

In the last two decades of the 19th<\/sup> century, the Gambrel roofed barn emerged to provide farmers with much more hay storage space.  This barn began its life with a Gable roof and was subsequently retrofitted to Gambrel with the required hay trolley in order to pack it to the roof with hay.<\/p>\n

Previously a dairy barn, today this barn is attached to a modern equestrian barn in order to maximize its effectiveness in housing horses, chickens, a donkey, two alpacas, ducks and other barnyard favorites while still providing adequate hay storage.<\/p>\n

Many actions have taken place over the years in order for this piece of living history to stay in tip top condition.  These include:  tuck pointing the stone foundation, adding metal exterior walls, re-roofing with interlocking asphalt shingles, adding interior cables to provide side to side support, and adding concrete block to strategic areas of the foundation.<\/p>\n

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Interview Notes<\/u><\/p>\n

The Carolyn Dicks Barn<\/u><\/p>\n

11000 Willow Road, Clinton,  MI<\/u><\/p>\n

Date of Interview:       9\/2\/2022<\/p>\n

Interviewer:                 Mark and Susie Jenkins<\/p>\n

Interviewee:                Carolyn Dicks<\/p>\n

1.)  Plat Map Ownership Record  (Bridgewater Township Section 22)<\/p>\n

1976    Larry Dicks \u2013 Carolyn\u2019s husband<\/p>\n

1970    Alfred C. Reiser<\/p>\n

1967    Alfred C. Reiser<\/p>\n

1915    William Reiser<\/p>\n

1896    W. Reiser<\/p>\n

1895    W. Reiser<\/p>\n

1874    D. Le Baron<\/p>\n

1864    D. Le Baron<\/p>\n

1856    D. Le Baron \u2013 C. Deloss Le Baron was born in 1833 and died in 1902.  He was in Toledo when he died.  His father was judge B.O. Le Baron.  His wife was Pauline M. Wilson.          <\/p>\n

2.)  Actions taken to maintain this beautiful barn<\/u><\/p>\n

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  • 2 cables have been added side to side to hold the barn square.<\/li>\n
  • Tuck pointed stone foundation.<\/li>\n
  • Replaced strategic foundation walls with concrete blocks.<\/li>\n
  • Re walled exterior with metal.<\/li>\n
  • Closed in and moved doors.<\/li>\n
  • Re-roofed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    3.)  Features of the Historic Barn<\/u><\/p>\n

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    • Connected to a modern equestrian barn.<\/li>\n
    • 2 Floors \u2013 the basement for animals and the main floor\/mow for hay and grain storage.<\/li>\n
    • Gable converted to Gambrel roof shape. The roof is self-supporting.<\/li>\n
    • Vertical, metal siding painted white.<\/li>\n
    • Hand hewn timbers in the basement and on all sides up to the roof. This indicates that this may be an 1800\u2019s barn originally.<\/li>\n
    • Carolyn thinks that the original gable barn was built in 1906 and then converted to a gambrel roofed barn in 1937. My research indicates that this barn is probably originally built in the late 1800\u2019s and converted in the early 1900\u2019s.<\/li>\n
    • Willow Haven Farms is lettered in black on the road side of the barn.<\/li>\n
    • Field stone foundation is raised on one side by a ramp with field stone edges. This allows for walk in access to the main floor on one side and walk in access to the basement on the other.<\/li>\n
    • 3 bay barn with areas for hay, threshing, and straw\/grain storage on the main floor.<\/li>\n
    • Interlocking asphalt shingles. Only the lightning road cable remains.<\/li>\n
    • Many windows provide excellent basement natural light.<\/li>\n
    • Hay trolley and track are both intact.<\/li>\n
    • Formerly a subsistence operation and a dairy barn.  The former owners had a wide variety of animals and crops.<\/li>\n
    • Currently it is a working barn. The main floor is for hay storage while the basement allows chickens, cats, donkey, 2 alpacas, ducks, and others to come in for the winter.<\/li>\n
    • Carolyn raises thoroughbred jumping horses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      4.)  Personal \/ Family Information<\/u><\/p>\n

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      • Steve Finkbeiner\u2019s mom and Carolyn\u2019s dad were siblings. Carolyn\u2019s maiden name is Girbach.  She grew up on Willow road.<\/li>\n
      • Carolyn is a musician and plays in church and with a civil war era band.<\/li>\n
      • Carolyn refers to this barn as her \u201ccathedral\u201d where she feels most connected and inspired. It is very important and personal to her.<\/li>\n
      • Carolyn and Larry bought the farm from Ann Seager (Alfred Reiser\u2019s sister in 1971.<\/li>\n
      • Corn and soybeans are farmed on the property by Carolyn\u2019s son in law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          The Carolyn Dicks Barn 11000 Willow Road, Clinton MI Built by C. Deloss Le Baron or William Reiser circa 1880   Carolyn Dicks was born on Willow Road and still makes her home \u201cjust down the road\u201d.  She loves her farm and its \u201ccathedral\u201d, a beautiful, classic 3 bay barn featuring hand hewn timber […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1299","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1302,"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1299\/revisions\/1302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clinthis.org\/hist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}