Loeb Farms
Three miles south of Charlevoix on M-66 is a remnant of the vast 1918 working farm of Albert Loeb of Chicago, vice president and general manager of Sears Roebuck and Company. The estate was modeled on a northern French chateau. Farm equipment to be sold by Sears was tested at Loeb Farms before it was put on the market. The cattle barn shown here had tiled rooms and an exercise courtyard for 200 purebred Holstein-Fresians. Its four stone silos held 1,000 tons of silage each.
Loeb Farms’ horse barn held twenty-six purebred Belgian draft sorrels. The operation became one of Michigan’s top tourist attractions. But the national farm economy started to sour by 1926. Loeb Farms closed down operations in 1928. From that point on everything but the residences began to deteriorate. As “Castle Farms” from the 1970s into the 1990s, the barns area became an entertainment venue that hosted the era’s top entertainers and rock and roll bands. In 2001, new owners began to restore it into the magnificent new Castle Farms complex. See www.castlefarms.com for more information.