Stepping foot on Bob and Sandy Mottice's Manchester property is like taking a step back in time. Their 1888 farmhouse, its crisp white siding set off by stark black trim, sits proudly at the front of their property on Pleasant Lake Road. Hemmed in by tidy bursts of colorful flowers, the two-story home paints a picture of well-tended simplicity.
Just beyond the welcoming side porch, a 40-foot Amish-built steel windmill stands sentinel over the dozen or so buildings on the property that harken back to a time before big box grocery stores and suburban sprawl.
The iconic windmill also serves as the logo for Let's Gather, a vendor market and showcase of homesteading from bygone eras that will take place at the Mottices on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 10am to 4pm. The event is free and open to the public, with a $5 charge for parking.
Together with their daughter Heather Mottice Rathburn, who is also Let's Gather's event organizer, the Mottices welcome visitors to peruse the wares, goods, and talents of over 35 local vendors and artisans who create unique handcrafted items. Demonstrations of pre- and early industrial means of food preparation, laundering, homesteading, woodworking, blacksmithing, and country life in the 19th and early 20th centuries will take place throughout the day.
Rathburn noted that food trucks, kids activities, and live music will help make the atmosphere festive and family-friendly. Docents from the Manchester Area Historical Society will be on hand to answer questions and engage discussion about the history on display in what the Mottices have made into something of a living museum.
Bob, 82, explained that he and Sandy both grew up in rural Ohio and had fond memories of their childhoods and time spent with their grandparents whose lifestyles didn't include many modern conveniences. An engineer by trade, Bob came to Ann Arbor in the1960s for work, along with Sandy and their two young daughters. When an opportunity arose soon thereafter "to move to the country," as Bob put it, the Mottices were all in.
At the time, the Manchester property had recently been subdivided from a farm (the original barn still stands across the road) and held just the Mottice's house and a small shed — the milk house, where large cans of fresh cow's milk were stored in a time before mechanical refrigeration.
Over the 54 years they have lived there, Bob and Sandy have built or moved 11 additional buildings onto the property, creating a veritable time machine to an era few living people can remember. A carefully restored 1840 log cabin (moved from Fletcher Rd, just a few miles away) and an 1870 Sharon Township one-room schoolhouse transport visitors back to 19th-century life. Bob makes all manner of things in the blacksmith shop he built, in the carpentry house, and in the original smokehouse. The chicken coop, pig pen, and a barn — raised the old-fashioned way, with many hands helping — all still stand, though Bob is now a retired hobby farmer who no longer keeps animals.
The extensive flower and vegetable gardens that he and Sandy tend, however, follow time worn traditions such as the method of planting together what indigenous people called "the three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash. The Mottices can the fruits of their labors and enjoy what they've grown year-round.
This year's Let's Gather event follows its first successful run in 2024. With a turnout of around 800 people, Rathburn and her parents were surprised by and deeply appreciative of the interest attendees showed in the vendors, demonstrations, and what the Mottices have built. They did not expect to repeat the event, but public interest is strong. "People keep asking about it, and my parents said they were willing," Rathburn said. "We're excited to do it again after a year off."
Let's Gather vendor market
2O83O East Pleasant Lake Rd, Manchester
Saturday, September 19, 1Oam-4pm
Free admission
$5 parking on site
Heather Rathburn
734-32O-1252
