PENTWATER BUILDING STORIES — the barn at the RIVER HOUSE FARM
The River House Farm Barn is the iconic landmark on Monroe at the southern gateway that welcomes visitors and residents to Pentwater, on business route US 31, in part of the Pentwater River State Game Area. Solidly built by lumber baron Charles Mears in 1862, the bright red Barn was part of a noble experiment by the innovative Mears, who imported thousands of fruit trees from Chicago to create what would become a model fruit farm on the banks of the Pentwater River overlooking Pentwater Lake. At the time that Mears was establishing this experiment in horticulture, mail was now coming twice a week. Stores were springing up. You could take a ferry across Pentwater Lake to Frenchtown for five cents a person or ten cents if you also had a horse, and 25 cents if you had a team of horses with a wagon. Previous to that it was a trip by oxen. After the trees were cut down and made into lumber, Charles Mears planted peach, plum, pear and apple trees.
When he was in Pentwater, according to his diary of 1860, Mears visited River House Farm. By 1862 had built this beautiful red barn and the operation gained fame as the first major fruit farming operation in Oceana County. The farm produced were some of the first peaches and the best varieties and that they brought wagon loads of fruit to sell in the village every year.Mears began erecting structures on the property for the family that ran the operation and the farm hands who boarded there. In fact, the first recorded marriage was at the farm. Justice of the Peace, David Darr, married the 30-year old farmer and former lumberman, Frank Hirner and his bride, Mary Aichler who was 20 on 8/27/1867. Both were born in Germany. That was the year that Pentwater was officially incorporated as a village. To this day, Oceana County is known for its fruit farms. When the farm had ceased operations, many of the trees in the apple orchard still bore fruit. Mr. & Mrs. Charles Jensen were living in the house in 1957 when it was engulfed in flames. They escaped unharmed with their daughter Sanda. The Pentwater Fire Department was noticed by a passing motorcyclist. Carrie Mears owned the property at the time. In 1963, the barn was used for the storage of picnic tables during the winter months when the Charles Mears State Park was closed. Beloved Pentwater artist, Kitty Kokx (Edith Mae Proctor), painted the red barn, as part of a collection of delightful scenes of Pentwater. Kitty vacationed here from Chicago, until high school when she moved to Pentwater full-time with her mother.
Today the Barn is our reminder of the innovation represented by the River House Farm. Efforts to preserve this important structure include the newer roof provided by the Pentwater Historical Society some years ago. There is a recognition that the Barn can provide an important lesson in history, teaching the public about the building techniques and the tools of the day, for example, adz, ax and saw. The Barn was constructed of native hardwoods harvested from the local virgin forests and cut into 44-foot lengths, hand-hewn beams and wooden peg fasteners. Tamarack posts were used for the roof supports (Oceana Herald-Journal, July 20, 2017).
There is no current solution to the need for ongoing repairs including deterioration of the structure’s stone foundation and concrete supports among other things. And there have been many ideas for a creative use for the property. Preservation of the River House Farm Barn remains an important and ongoing public conversation. There is interest among barn preservationists to help this important historic structure survive but at present the barn appears to be slowly but steadily deteriorating.
SOURCES:
Pentwater 1853-1942 by Florence R. Schrumpf. 2nd Printing 1993 Oceana Herald Journal.
Pentwater Historical Society Newsletters: https://pentwaterhistoricalsociety.org/newsletters.html —
“Meet Kitty Kokx—a Notable Pentwater Artist,” by Ed Bigelow, Pentwater Fall Newsletter, November 2008.
Newspaper Articles—
”February is Noted Month of Romance,” by Lenore P. Williams, Ludington Daily News, 2/11/1954.
Charles Mears Diary in “Reminiscences of Pentwater” by Lenore P. Williams, Ludington Daily News, 10/25/1949 and 3/5/1950.
“Freesoil Township 115 years old this year,” by Lenore P. WIlliams, Ludington Daily News, 10/17/1957.
“Old House: Landmark is destroyed by Fire,” Grand Rapids Press, 2/19/1957.
Oceana Herald-Journal, July 20, 2017.