Axford-Coffin Farm

This complex of buildings began as the farmstead of John Axford, who built the Greek Revival house during the 1840s. Farmer Jacob Kline purchased it in 1848, and his descendants operated the farm until 1925. During the Great Depression the bank foreclosed on the mortgage. In 1939 Howard A. Coffin, a Detroit businessman and U.S. Congressman, and his wife, Abbie, converted the farm to a country retreat. They enlarged the house, updated some of the buildings, and added a massive interior stone fireplace and a stone-walled pond. Coffin and his second wife, Marie, sold the farm in 1951. Subsequent owners rented out the property and made few changes, thus preserving the farm. The township purchased it in 1996. The farm is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.