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Wilson Barn

United States historic place, Ira Wilson Dairy Barn

Field	Value
name	Wilson Barn
image	Wilson Barn Livonia MI.jpg
location	NE corner of Middlebelt and W. Chicago Rds., Livonia, Michigan
coordinates
locmapin	Michigan#USA
built	1888
architect	John H. Paterson
architecture	Bank Barn
added	December 12, 1973
area	4.8 acre
refnum	73000962
designated_other1	Michigan State Historic Site
designated_other1_date	November 15, 1973
designated_other1_num_position	bottom

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 right by Emerson Middle School. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1973. This was the beginning of the Ira Wilson & Sons Dairy Company, a now defunct company (which partnered for a time with Kroger and was ultimately acquired by Melody Farms in 1980). There were several large iconic cow's head sculptures, which were fixtures in the Detroit metropolitan area.

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.

Events

The friends of the Wilson Barn host many events at the barn including a farmers market every saturday from the first Saturday in June until October, pumpkinfest, a twice monthly community board game night, an annual chess tournament, and other various events including 2 car shows.

References

{{NRISref. 2009a
"Giant cow head". [[Atlas Obscura]].
(April 2001). "Milking It". Michael George, Stagnito Publishing.
"A Tale of Two Cow heads". Detroitkidshow.com.
"Wilson's Dairy". [[Library of Congress]].
(May 20, 2016). "Own the Landmark Dairy Building from ''8 Mile'' for $79K: 'This opportunity comes once in a lifetime'".
(February 9, 2015). "Obituary, Ira Wilson II". Desmond Funeral Home.
"Ira Wilson Sons Dairy". [[Mapquest]].
[http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/hso/sites/16937.htm Wilson Barn] from the state of Michigan, retrieved 1/5/10
(June 8, 2005). "Livonia". [[Arcadia Publishing]].
"ABOUT FRIENDS OF THE BARN". Friends of the Barn.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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