CHARLEVOIX, Mich. — It’s been nearly a century since an old dairy farm in Michigan was one of the largest employer in the community.

Castle Farms in Charlevoix draws close to 100,000 visitors a year primarily for weddings, while acres of gardens containing a wide variety of flowers such as roses, tulips, petunias, daisies and hydrangeas are also a draw. 

General Manager Kristin Frazho said as many as five weddings a day can be held inside the three original buildings with walls made of stone on the property. Concerts and other events are also held with Tram rides available to help navigate the over 60 acre.

Tasting wine from century old cellars and various activities for children are among the other attractions. 

“We have all kinds of stuff going on,” she said.

The property was purchased in a tax sale in 2001 for $300,000 by Linda Mueller. Frazho said one reason Mueller fell in love with the property were the buildings resembled the castles she saw on her previous trips to Europe. 

At the time, she said Mueller didn’t know what dream to pursue until she happened to get an unexpected call from a couple wanting to get married on the property. “That’s what led her in the direction to have weddings and events,” she said.

Mueller, who spends her winters now in Mississippi, is still involved with the operation especially when she’s here from late May to October. “She’s out in the garden.  She talks to the tourists that come through. She’s very active in the community doing different things,” she said.

Over a roughly 10 year period, Frazho said close to $30 million was invested in restoring and developing the property with much of the funding spent getting ready for the first wedding held there in 2005. As many as 50 to 300 guests, depending the building chosen for a wedding, can be accommodated.

Frazho said anything original that could be saved from the structures, including some of the glass windows, were used in the restoration with help from descendants of the original farm owner, Albert Loeb. The farm originally held about 200 head of prize-winning Holstein-Friesian dairy cows after it was built in 1918 by Loeb, the acting President of Sears, Roebuck and Co.

He modeled the farm after the stone barns and castles he saw in France while on his honeymoon.

“They brought that back here and they talked to their architect about designing it to look like a French Normandy architecture. So, that’s what they did,” said Jessica Anderson, Director of Guest Experiences at Castle Farms. 

Loeb used the farm to showcase the latest farm equipment available through the Sears, Roebuck and Co. shopping catalog in hopes of obtaining more sales. At its peak, the farm with more than 90 workers on its payroll was the largest employer in Charlevoix County.

Frazho said a schoolhouse exclusive to children of the farm workers was built near the operation due to lack of space at the existing school building.

About a decade later, the farm began struggling financially from the Great Depression and was closed.

Frazho said there was no further activity on the property until 1962 when the new owner opened a café and art gallery with a working artist studio. 

Seven years later, there were different owners who hosted many concerts on the property by famous artists like Aerosmith, Tina Turner and The Doobie Brothers for about 20 years.

For more information visit https://castlefarms.com/