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Hauling history: Parts of an old Macomb County farmhouse are carted off and reinstalled in an 1836 Grosse Ile home

September 17, 2006

BY LAURALEE ORTIZ

The demolition of an 1850s Greek Revival farmhouse in Ray Township easily could be a disappointing end to one of Michigan's historical properties.

But thanks to the dreams of two couples -- one with a desire to re-create the past, the other with a passion to preserve it -- key pieces of the house are getting new life on Grosse Ile.

When Ken and Rania Wisniewski purchased the home on 29 Mile in 2004, it wasn't the pre-Civil War era, two-story design with its gabled, low-pitched roof wide trim and Greek-style entryway that caught their attention. It was the two-acre parcel that came with it.

"It's a beautiful piece of land surrounded by almost 60 acres of soybean fields and mature trees," Ken Wisniewski said.

The couple, formerly of Macomb Township, had more modern visions for the dream home they would put there, a 3,000-square-foot, ranch-style house of brick and limestone.

In the spring of 2005, they started construction.

With permission from township planning officials who normally don't allow two homes on a single parcel, the couple lived in the farmhouse while their ranch was being built. A condition of the agreement was that, once the house was completed, the older structure would be removed.

Over time, the idea of preserving parts of the old structure came to the Wisniewskis. The house, its history and the spirit of its longtime owner, Esther Winter, had worked their magic.

Winter, who had served as Ray Township's treasurer, lived in the home for 88 years until her death at age 91.

"This one woman who never married and never had children spent her life here," Wisniewski says. "It was like a moment in time. I didn't feel comfortable just tearing it down and sending the pieces to a landfill."

Best offer over 50 cents

But how best to preserve it? Ken Wisniewski's first thought was to sell it -- cheap.

"I put an ad in the Romeo Observer offering house for sale," he says. "The best offer over 50 cents would have bought it."

Unfortunately, the costs associated with moving and restoring the home didn't appeal to potential buyers.

While all hope of avoiding the wrecking ball faded, Wisniewski says, the next best thing happened.

"I got a call from a woman asking if I would be interested in donating it to the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit," he says. "She said she had a couple already interested in reusing some of the materials."

Carolyn Mosher, president of ASWD, says the farmhouse was similar in design to a house recently moved from one side of Grosse Ile to another by a couple who planned to restore it to its original design.

"I told" Ken Wisniewski "we had this very nice man with a family of five kids trying to preserve an 1836 clapboard house on Grosse Ile," she says. "I asked if we could come out and see if there was anything he could use."

Barry Jensen, owner of the Grosse Ile home, toured the Wisniewskis' property and said his list grew long.

"When I started poking around, I saw a lot of great stuff," Jensen says. Among the keepers were baseboard moldings, door casings and window casings that had never been painted.

Jensen said his restoration project also could make use of the flooring, doors, light fixtures and kitchen cabinets.

The bonus: The ASWD will oversee the removal of the artifacts and absorb the $5,000 labor costs, Mosher said. Her company creates jobs and training in the deconstruction field and, at the same time, salvages architectural materials.

"We retrieve the materials and make our money by reselling them from our warehouse," Mosher said.

Wisniewski, meanwhile, is responsible for tearing down the remaining structure. His new house now finished, demolition is to take place soon after the salvage process is complete.

Grosse Ile connection

Jensen, originally from South Lyon, moved 18 years ago to California, where he and his wife, Donna, began raising their children. But even the warm weather and nearby beaches weren't enough to keep them away from their extended family in Michigan.

A visit two years ago to Grosse Ile sealed the decision to move. Last year, Donna and the five children, who range in age from 5 to 14, made the trek to the island and moved into a rental near their future home.

Barry still commutes to his law practice in California but hopes to transfer his business here in the coming months.

"It's like Kensington Park with a river," Jensen says of Grosse Ile. "It's rural and peaceful."

To be honest, the feeling was just the opposite when he first laid eyes on the clapboard house that his brother dragged him to see.

"My brother had seen a story in This Old House" magazine "about this house being sold for $1," he says. "When I saw the outside, I thought it was way too small. I really had no interest in it."

One step inside what is known as the Ballard-Stryker House (named for two families who lived there) changed his mind.

"It was not small at all," he says. "It was 2,900 square feet with a 300-square-foot kitchen and a 40-by-20-foot sunroom."

Lovers of history, the Jensens said they became more intrigued when they learned that members of the Potawatomi and Wyandotte American-Indian tribes traded maple sugar for bread on its pine plank floors.

The asking price of its owner, the Grosse Ile Historical Society, was, indeed, $1. The catch, of course, was that the buyer had to pay all expenses associated with moving it. Vince Finazzo, a local dentist, had donated the house to the historical society and had made an additional $25,000 donation to help find someone willing to move and preserve it. Finazzo has plans to build a new home on the site.

The Jensens made the commitment, thinking they would be in their new home by December 2005.

Now, almost a year later, they remain in limbo as their four-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bath home that had to be split into two sections for its 2-mile journey to West River Road is being refurbished by Mike Rickman of Fine Finishings in Southgate.

Being preserved are such details as a hipped roof, center gable with a pair of arched windows in front and decorative brackets under the eaves. The house also includes two fireplaces, raised-panel doors and ornate stained-glass windows.

The old home now sits on a one-acre lot on the island's west side.

Donna Jensen says it's been a "crazy and horrific year." To stay motivated, she says, "We go over there and have picnic lunches on the front porch."

While many of the original materials are still in decent condition, others will be restored or replaced with materials salvaged from the Ray Township home.

"We could see that the house was tired but essentially in pretty darn good shape," he says. "It had been rented for a while and had some leaks that had just been patched."

The sunroom and a kitchen that were later additions were not salvageable and will be replaced, he says. The couple say they also will restore a separate carriage house from the property using windows from the Ray Township home.

Total cost for the project is estimated to be around $700,000.

"We originally thought it would be $500,000 to $550,000," Barry Jensen said, adding that scrapping a master suite addition has kept the price from soaring above $1 million.

"To find pieces from the right era could easily have taken five years or more," he says. "Finding the farmhouse has really helped things fall into place for us."

The move-in date is Thanksgiving, no ifs, ands or buts, Donna Jensen says. "Christmas at the latest."

ASWD is located at 4885 15th Street in Detroit. For more information visit www.aswdetroit.org or call founder Carolyn Mosher at (313) 515-0399.

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