• 2007 Barn of the Year Recipient •

2007 Non-Profit or Commercial Use
Sutherland-Wilson Barn
Pittsfield Charter Township

Named as the winner in the category of "Commercial or Non-profit Adaptive Reuse" is the Sutherland-Wilson Barn, owned by the Pittsfield Charter Township at 797 W. Textile Road in Washtenaw County.

Believed to have been built in 1850, the barn was part of a 160-acre farm that had been in the Sutherland family since 1832 and was designated as a Centennial Farm. President Andrew Jackson signed the certificate of sale in 1831 to Jonathon Meeds who, a year later, sold the land to Langford Sutherland. The farm was divided for residential development in 2000, 4.6 acres of which was acquired by the Pittsfield Historical Society. This parcel contains the barn, the farmhouse, which is one of the finest examples of early Greek Revival architecture in the area, and six outbuildings.

At the time that the work began to restore the 32' by 58' gable-roofed barn, the barn was close to shifting off of its foundation. Work done by H. Hinz Inc. included rebuilding of portions of the dressed stone and lime mortar foundation, cabling and reinforcing of the hand-hewn pegged frame, some replacement of rotted or damaged roof framing, and installation of a new hand-split cedar shake roof. The shakes were brought in from British Columbia. A grant from the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries helped defray the cost of rebuilding the foundation.

The site is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and will begin a new life as the Sutherland-Wilson Farm Museum in Pittsfield Township, Washtenaw County.