Podjun, John and Katharine Tunkun, Farm

About this property

The John and Katharine Tunkun Podjun Farm is a farm located at 9582 East 1 Mile Road in Luther, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. John Podjunus emigrated from Lithuania in 1897 or 1898, shortening his name (to Podjun) on arrival and settling in Boston. He eventually moved to the coal-mining region of southern Illinois, and built a house in Johnston City, Illinois. In 1904 he married Katharine Tunkun, the sister of a friend and fellow emigre. Some years later, the couple had had two children and considered moving. They saw an advertisement in a Lithuanian-language newspaper for land in Lake County, Michigan. Other Lithuanians had already settled in the area in the late 19th century, drawn by the timber industry and farming. John and Katharine Podjun purchased the land this farm sits on in 1914, and moved there in the summer of that year. At the time, the land was recently cut timber. John Podjun immediately began clearing the land, developing crop fields, an orchard, pasture areas and a large garden plot. The Podjuns also constructed a small dwelling (now the rear portion of the main house) and then the main section of the barn, completing the barn in 1916. They slowly constructed a complex of farm buildings over the next 15 years, adding a granary, corn crib, machine shed, chicken house, and an addition to the barn. John Podjun retired from farming in 1953 and died the following year. Katherine Podjun continued living there until her death in 1973, and the couple's daughter Amelia Podjun Baker Yost lived there until her death in 1995. After Amelia's death, the farm passed to her surviving children, Paul Ross Baker, Amelia C. Jayne, and Kathleen McNeel. The Podjun Farm is an L-shaped tract of land covering 120 acres (49 ha). The farm also includes crop fields, an orchard, pasture, a woodlot, red pine plantations, areas of cedar swamp, and a farmstead with a collection of buildings. The buildings include an I-house-style farmhouse, a gambrel-roof barn, a granary/corn crib, and a machine shed. Springs on the property form the headwaters of the Little Manistee River. House: The Podjun house is a two-story side-gable I-house with a one-story rear ell. The rear ell is the original living quarters, built in 1914. The house is covered with clapboard with plain corner- and frieze boards. A porch is located in the center of the front facade, supported with brick piers. The front section of the house measures 28 feet by 16 feet, and contains a living room and bedroom downstairs, with two bedrooms upstairs. The rear ell contains a kitchen and a utility room.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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