The History of Ancestral Acres
Travel back to an era of refinement and splendor.
If the walls of the Beardsley house could talk, they would recount a story of elegance and luxury that once characterized this old mansion.
The Beardsley-Holmes Family & “The Evergreens”
When Ezra Beardsley (1839-1916) came to Bronson in 1871, he purchased 1100 acres of land northwest of Bronson and built the elaborate Queen Anne-style house that became known as "The Evergreens.” Ezra married Florence A. Holmes (1853-1924) after whom Holmes Road is named. They had two children: a son, Walton H. Beardsley (1875-1956), and a daughter, Jessie Beardsley (1877-1961).
Construction on the house was completed in the 1880s. The house included 13 rooms (7 bedrooms, 2 parlors, a kitchen, a dining room, an atrium, and maid’s quarters), 5 fireplaces, and a complete bathroom with running water (uncommon for that time) featuring a tin-lined copper tub and a marble washstand. Florence reproduced childhood photographs of Walton and Jesse in painted tiles surrounding the first parlor fireplace. The kitchen included a large walk-in pantry and two dumbwaiters that ran down to the cellar. An unfinished attic doubling as a ballroom occupied the entirety of the third floor. The land was developed into a fine stock farm, and the Beardsley-Holmes family became known for breeding racehorses and steer and for hosting horse races on a track located on the property. Additional original buildings included an expansive horse barn, several sheds, a chicken house, and a bunkhouse. The Evergreens became the center of social events in the area and one of the loveliest showplaces in Branch County.
Ezra and Florence left the property to Walton and Jessie, neither of whom ever married. They lived in the home until their deaths.
In 1961, the home and 445 acres of the land were purchased by John Placetka, a Bronson lumberyard owner. John intended to restore the home, but he abandoned the project after several years experiencing vandalism.
Marjorie and Michael Berkman circa 1941
Marjorie and Michael Berkman’s Fort Monmouth, New Jersey garden
The Berkman Family Farm
Michael Berkman and Marjorie Edelstein met at Hyde Park High School in Chicago and married in November 1941. During World War II, Michael joined the United States Army where he worked in a specialized engineering group developing techniques and manuals for using and repairing radar and short-wave radio. From 1941 to 1945, the couple enjoyed gardening and country life while stationed on a one-acre farm on the army base in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
After the war, Michael and Marjorie returned to Chicago. Michael worked as a chemist then as a patent lawyer. Marjorie worked as an executive assistant for a wine and liquor importer. They had two children, Laurel (Laurie) and William (Billy), in 1945 and 1950.
Michael and Marjorie fondly remembered their time in the New Jersey countryside and hoped to share their love of nature and gardening with their children. The family took many weekend excursions around the Midwest with the hope of finding a small farm to buy. William recalls from his early childhood that his family saved pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters in a large turquoise “piggy bank” with Ancestral Acres inscribed on its side.
In the spring of 1968, William, then a college student at the University of Chicago, joined his father, Michael, on another trip – this time to Michigan – to look at a farmhouse and 445-acres of forests, fields, and wetlands that were for sale. The house was advertised as haunted, and it was rather dilapidated at the time with no heat, no intact windows, no running water, and a fair share of furry and not-so-furry residents. Despite, or perhaps due to, those imperfections, the family (along with Marjorie’s sister, Cecile Edelstein) fell in love with and purchased the "Old Beardsley Place.” They completed initial repairs to windows, plumbing, and heat to make the house more livable but mostly enjoyed prolonged weekends away from the city growing gardens with prize-winning produce and enjoying delicious home-cooked meals. In the 1970s, they built the barn that currently stands. The Berkmans shared the country life with many of their Chicago friends and locals becoming well-known and beloved members of the Bronson community. As Michael and Marjorie aged, their ability to undertake such projects waned even as their passion for spending time there remained strong.
Beardsley Home in 1968
The Queen Anne Mansion in 2018
The Old Beardsley Barn
Ancestral Acres Barn in 2021
Restoration & “Ancestral Acres”
After Michael and Marjorie passed away in 2007 and 2010, William, by then retired from his career as a physician, undertook the restoration of the house and development of the property in earnest. The house was restored from the ground up. William had the foundation reinforced, drainage installed, the cellar floor cemented, and the masonry restored. The windows were replaced or repaired, plaster walls were repaired and painted, and intricately carved wooden moldings on windows and doors were removed, cleaned, and restored. Carpets lined with a century of dirt, dust, and droppings were taken up revealing newspapers from the early 1900s (Newspapers were often used to pad carpets at that time.) and beautiful hardwood floors. The kitchen was remodeled. The attic was cleaned of cobwebs, finished, and turned into a ballroom. The house restoration took 5 years, and on April 20, 2015, the National Park Service listed the Ezra E. and Florence (Holmes) Beardsley Home in the National Register of Historic Places (full application to the National Register of Historic Places; Wikipedia), the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Honoring his parents’ vision, William has now unofficially renamed the house Ancestral Acres Lodge.
William also completed significant upgrades to the barn, which now functions as a wedding venue. The dirt floor was cemented. The interior walls and deck were power washed and painted in a whitewash. Skylights, chandeliers, fans, and heaters were installed.
William also undertook significant landscaping projects. In 2010, he obtained a permit from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to allow him to restore the property’s pond, which had silted in over the past century. The fields – once farmed – were planted with wildflowers and native grasses and enrolled in a federal agricultural conservation program. The roughly 10 acres near the house and barn were cleared of brush. Gravel and decorative rocks were put down for paths and roads, and lawns were adorned with ornamental plants. More recently, additional ponds were created to supplement the ponds and wetlands already existing on the property. William continues to improve the landscaping every year.