Highlighting history through handcrafted works of art
Rapid Growth Media gets up close and personal in their Barns Into Birdhouses photos of our hand-crafted bird houses. Check out their latest article.
Rapid Growth Media gets up close and personal in their Barns Into Birdhouses photos of our hand-crafted bird houses. Check out their latest article.
Film footage shot at a bluebird trail at Boulder Creek Golf Course in Rockford Michigan. Documentary filmmaker David Sizemore. Supervising naturalist Mark DeHaan.
Gavotte En Roundeau 4th Lute Suite
Exzel Music Publishing (freemusicpublicdomain.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
For Barns and Birdhouses owner John Guertin and his wife, Irene Franowicz, historical projects include more than birdhouses! They include real houses too. In March 2022, the Grand Rapids Historic Commission presented them with an Outstanding Residential Preservation Award for their restoration of the Barns Into Birdhouses office located at 144 Fitzhugh St. SE in Grand Rapids, MI.
The pair’s multi-decade project involved renovating the home/office into its original Queen Anne style dating to circa 1890. They replaced everything from shingles, scroll work, moldings, and kitchen cabinets to the front porch and fencing, all to replicate its original style and return it to its full glory. Details and more pictures.
In this interview with Brent Ashcroft on ABC’s WZZM13, John Guertin discusses Barns Into Birdhouses, how he salvages parts of vintage barns to make his artistic creations for birds and bats.
He also tells the story of President Gerald R. Ford and his personal support for his work.
Check out the article for a deeper dive interview.
John chats with MLive in Grand Rapids, Michigan about his conservationist roots & discusses the origins of Barns Into Birdhouses.
Check out the interview with Hope Davison from MLive!
Barns Into Birdhouses recently returned to the Smithsonian Museum’s Craft and Design Show. This time, for the 2021 “Craft Optimism” Exhibit, an event highlighting commitment to the environment and climate change.
Check out the show details in the link above!
Documentary by Voice of America about Barns Into Birdhouses. 2019 news release about John Guertin and his mission to help birds and bats by re-purposing ancient barns.
VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 49 languages, which it distributes to affiliate stations around the world.
Barns Into Birdhouses continues to be newsworthy. Check out the article in Michigan Blue Magazine!
John Guertin and Barns Into Birdhouses make an appearance this month at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Antiques, Garden, & Design Show. Here John is featured with some of his designs, photo courtesy Chicago Tribune.
GRAND RAPIDS — Local birdhouse craftsman John Guertin isn’t competing with China. He doesn’t want to. Through a love of all things nature, he’s developed a special process, collecting materials and assembling them in a way that, he believes, beats any mass-produced birdhouse or feeder coming from the Far East.
Guertin, 55, has spent the past 15 years creating new from old, prying boards from hundred-year-old Michigan barns and shaping them into Victorian-style birdhouses and newly added feeders for the business he created, Heart & Eagle Co.
Click here to read the rest of the written article
John Guertin has an interesting story to tell and he’s not afraid to tell it.
One of the hardest jobs of a retailer is getting attention in the community – in a way that does not involve taking out ads in the media. John Guertin’s Heart & Eagle Company manages to do just that. The story behind his work has gotten him local, regional and national coverage and it may give you some inspiration and P.R. ideas of your own.
Guertin handcrafts birdhouses and bird feeders out of salvaged wood. Some of it came with the old Victorian house he and his wife own in Grand Rapids, Michigan, some he purchases, and a great deal of it comes from the old Patterson Barn where President Gerald Ford worked … ”
(milking cows as part of an election promise in 1948. He promised Kentwood farmers that if they
cast their votes for him and he won a seat in Congress, he’d work on the Patterson farm every morning for a fortnight.)
Click here to read the rest of the written article
Click here or select *(click) the Video Image on the left side of this text to launch our Wood TV interview from December 2009.
Gerry Barnaby (WOOD TV 8, NBC affiliate) interviews John Guertin about his green project, recycling old barns (2002).