The Michaels Farm is a historic

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

in the northwestern part of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Composed of simple

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

structures and buildings with clear architectural stylistic influences, the farm has been home to members of the same families for nearly two hundred years, and it has been named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

. The rich and productive soil of Liberty Township attracted numerous farmers from the earliest days of settlement, and the township was officially organized in 1832. Among the early villages in the township was a settlement known as

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

, which was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted in early 1855. By this time, many families of pioneer settlers had become prosperous farmers.Lang, W. ''History of Seneca County, from the Close of the Revolutionary War to July, 1880''. Springfield: Transcript, 1880, 549-550. One of these prosperous farms was home to the family of John Michaels,Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 2.

St. Clair Shores St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ...

: Somerset, 1999, 1261. who had been one of the first settlers in the area; he and his family occupied a farm located south of Kansas on a road that has since become State Route 635. Michaels had not been the original property owner: the land had been brought under cultivation by 1829, but he and his family first obtained the title in the 1830s. Michaels' descendants and a related family named Dicken continuously owned and operated the property as a typical farm into the late twentieth century. Such an extended tenure has caused the property to portray changes in architectural tastes: the extant buildings date from a wide range of years and are examples of multiple architectural styles. Nine buildings compose the farmstead: six historic buildings and three newer. The most prominent building is the 1870s brick farmhouse, an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

structure with a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or ' ...

and an ornamental cornice. Other buildings on the farm are older, including simpler

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

barns with

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

elements; even a

privy Privy is an old-fashioned term for an outdoor toilet, often known as an outhouse and by many other names. Privy may also refer to: * Privy council, a body that advises the head of state * Privy mark, a small mark in the design of a coin * Privy Pur ...

survives to the present. In 1979, the Michaels Farm was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

; its historic buildings were named

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

, and the others were deemed non-contributing. It is the only federally designated historic site in Liberty Township, although more than forty other locations have been given this designation elsewhere in Seneca County. Key to its designation was the property's consistent history of use by the same families for more than a century and a half and the wide range of historic agricultural buildings that survived in good condition.

References

External links

Property profile
from the Seneca County Auditor's Office {{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Seneca County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Seneca County, Ohio Greek Revival houses in Ohio Italianate architecture in Ohio Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio