Rustic Spirit

Barns are a strong part of Michigan's agrarian history,and their preservation is the goal of several groups.

By Terry Parris Jr.

A horse barn in Macomb County has a Masonic symbol carved at the apex. Image from Mary Keithan's book, Michigan Heritage Barns (Michigan State University Press).

Mary Keithan

Paris is home to the majestic Notre Dame. Southwest of that landmark is the lauded Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres. In Cologne, Germany, they call it the Kölner Dom, the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. But stay right here in Michigan; jump on M-14, I-75, or any road traveling out of the city, and a different, much more humble kind of cathedral rises. They’re called barns.
Past the fences, under the trotting horses and grazing cows, and at the end of the vertical lines of budding crops, sit some of Michigan’s own version of rural Notre Dames.
“I call them cathedrals to the Earth’s spirit,” says Jan Corey Arnett, known as the “Barn Lady.”

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