Built 1888 Architectural style Bank Barn Designated MSHS November 15, 1973 Area 2 ha | Architect John H. Paterson NRHP Reference # 73000962 Opened 1888 Added to NRHP 12 December 1973 | |
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Location NE corner of Middlebelt and W. Chicago Rds., Livonia, Michigan Similar Friends of the Barn, Frederick Stearns Building, Henry Ford Square House, James A Garfield School, Highland Park General | ||
Wilson barn demo 3
The Wilson Barn (also known as the Ira Wilson Dairy Barn) is a barn located at the northeast corner of Middlebelt and W. Chicago Roads in Livonia, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973.
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Wilson barn demo 2
History
Ira Wilson was born in 1867, and began his career in dairy farming at an early age, working on the farm owned by his family since 1847. He built a barn on this site in 1888; in 1919 the barn burned and he built the present structure on the foundations of the earlier barn. Wilson eventually established a million-dollar dairy, creamery, and trucking business, the Ira Wilson & Sons Dairy, and served for two terms as Wayne County sheriff. Wilson died in 1944, and the lower level of the barn was converted for use as a horse stable in the same year.
As of 2011, the Wilson Barn is managed by "The Friends of the Barn," a volunteer group.
Description
The barn is a post-and-beam structure faced with wood siding, resting on a stone foundation and having a gambrel roof. A silo made of dark brown, glazed tile is attached to the barn.