The Red Barn Learning Center began as an empty stretch of forest and meadow. It was purchased in 1976 by John and Becky Geni, who bought ninety acres as a future vacation spot for their family. The property is bounded on two sides by state forest and sits across the road from a lake, one of many in the area. The land is hilly, and because it is an end moraine that was shaped by glaciers, it has “kettles" — valleys that are completely surrounded by hills.

Since the property was vacant, John decided that he would teach himself how to build a house. A factory worker with an artistic streak, he made stained glass and wire sculptures in his spare time; he bought and repaired old cars to sell and could handle basic plumbing and wiring. He and Becky chose a spot on a hill. With the help of his grown sons, John built a simple one-bedroom cabin and garage with a bare concrete floor and interior walls that met each other at odd angles. He planted dozens of conifer saplings to provide a future windbreak.

For the next decade, John and Becky rented the meadow to a local rancher, who kept and grazed his cows there in the summer. The cows made the land their own, bedding down in the tall grass and creating trails through the meadow. They happily ate every downed apple and planted ever more pre-fertilized apple saplings. Over the years, impenetrable groves of gnarled apple trees grew, along with thickets of thorny wild rose. Larry, John and Becky’s oldest son, often stayed at the property with his wife and children. The tiny house was unfinished and so uncomfortable that they would sometimes set up a tent and camp next to it.

Larry was a mechanical engineer, master woodworker, physics teacher, and landscape painter. Enraptured by the natural beauty of Red Barn, he saw new possibilities for what the place could become. He began making improvements, beginning with the house. Friends and family and many of Larry’s high school students pitched in, erecting a screened porch and deck, rehabbing the existing structure, and finally converting the garage into an addition with multiple rooms and all the amenities.

At last, Larry and Nancy created a not-for-profit corporation called the Red Barn Learning Center (usually shortened to Red Barn).

The first person to use the property in its new capacity was their daughter, Abby Geni, who was then a Montessori middle school teacher. In keeping with the erdkinder philosophy, she and her co-teacher brought their class of seventh and eighth graders to Red Barn for four- to five-day stretches several times throughout each school year. Under Abby’s supervision, the middle schoolers did all the cooking and cleaning (with some help), built bunk beds and benches, blazed trails, gained unparalleled real world experience, and fell in love with the prairie. Many of them later talked about these trips as their favorite part of middle school.

Over the years, Red Barn hosted painting workshops, language immersion weekends, and educational retreats. After graduating from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Abby planned and oversaw the first of many writing retreats there. Later, she and her husband, Scott Westerman, lived at Red Barn for a three-month residency during which Abby finished her first book, the award-winning short story collection The Last Animal.

In 2014, Larry got in touch with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources about a prairie restoration project. Specialists came to Red Barn and did a controlled burn, ridding the prairie of its invasive species, in particular the virulent wild rose and apple trees. The workers then seeded the ground with over 100 species of native plants, which have been flourishing ever since.

Under the guidance of the Red Barn land manager, Roger Heffner, the process of returning the prairie and forest to its original state has continued. In the summer, the wildflowers grow taller than a person’s head, and several hours of wide walking trails through the prairie and the forest are maintained by tractor and brush hog. The wildlife population has responded to the new environment, and animals and bird species have found a sanctuary here. In addition, Larry built a dozen bluebird houses (several with the help of his grandchild, Milo), and installed them along the trails to provide a home for the beautiful Eastern Bluebird.

Red Barn now hosts retreats and residencies throughout the spring, summer, and fall. Writing retreats are facilitated by Abby Geni (www.abbygeni.com), the award-winning author of two novels and two short story collections, a faculty member at StoryStudio Chicago, and a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Scott Westerman (www.scottwesterman.org), a director, actor, teacher, producer, and new works facilitator based in Chicago, leads acting intensives, playwriting and devising residencies, and theatre retreats. Larry Geni (www.geniconsulting.org and www.larrygeni.com), is now an educational consultant and author of “Agency: The Teacher’s Guide to Self-Directed Learning”, and he works with schools around the Chicago area. He continues to oversee the property, keep an eye on the ever-encroaching invasive species, make improvements (and brush hog the trails).

It has been quite a journey over the past 47 years, and we are fascinated to see where the next 47 years take us.