Want to learn a little bit more about one of Leelanau County’s most notable historic landmarks? At 1pm on Sunday, August 4, the Bay Theatre will offer a screening of Saving the Barn, a new locally-produced documentary short about “the history, preservation, and future of the Leelanau County Poor Farm and County Infirmary.” The screening is free and open to the public.

The Poor Farm got its start in 1901, when the Leelanau County board of supervisors (now known as the board of commissioners) bought a Maple City farm to house residents who could not care for themselves. For years, the farm provided the county’s neediest and most vulnerable populations with opportunities to engage in meaningful agriculture and domestic work.

In 2020, a preservation effort led by local county residents succeeded in securing a Michigan Historic Marker for the Poor Farm site, courtesy of the Michigan History Center. The site became the 44th Historic Marker site in Leelanau County, and the farm’s landmark white barn was saved from demolition. Saving the Barn tells the story of those preservation efforts.

The film was produced by the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society, which worked with documentary filmmaker Joe VanderMeulen, PhD to bring it to life.

The August 4 event at the Bay Theatre is free and open to the public, and will include both a screening of the 26-minute film and a panel discussion with VanderMeulen, Kim Kelderhouse (executive director of the Leelanau Historical Society), Barbara Siepker (a local historian and founding board member with the Leelanau County Historic Preservation Society), and Susan Stein-Roggenbuck (an associate professor at Michigan State University’s James Madison College). Norm Wheeler, who narrates Saving the Barn, will moderate the panel.

Beyond the public screening, Saving the Barn is also available for viewing on YouTube.