The Mail Pouch Tobacco barn standing on the land where Meijer will build its Hillsdale location. Courtesy | Facebook

The Hillsdale County Historical Society is preserving the historic Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisement from the barn on Meijer’s property.

“Meijer was all too happy to hear that we wanted to preserve a historical feature and volunteered to let us have it, and even take it down and transport it for us to a safe location,” said Kathy Fowler, a historical society board member.

Meijer plans to open near the intersection of W. Carleton Road and Beck Road in spring 2024.

Hillsdale Planning and Zoning Administrator Alan Beeker previously said the city received plans that showed Meijer demolishing the barn for construction. Meijer Director of Corporate Communications Frank Guglielmi also said the company had been planning to remove the barn.

But Meijer will begin disassembling the barn on March 27. Workers will carefully remove the wood with the advertisement, stack it, and shrink wrap it, according to Morgan Morrison ’21, a historical society board member. It should be ready for transport to the historical society property by April 5.

Once the historical society receives the wood, members will re-assemble the barn wall with the advertisement. The society will display the advertisement either in its Barn Museum or in its old barn on the Will Carleton Poorhouse property, Morrison said.

According to Morrison, the historical society will display the advertisement under lighting so viewers can see the advertisement’s fading paint better.

Morrison said while many have called to restore the barn, the project is unrealistic and would cost tens of thousands of dollars. This is a way to preserve the advertisement without spending much money, he said.

The Mail Pouch barns are a fascinating example of commercial folk art, Morrison said. The owners of Mail Pouch Tobacco realized this was a good marketing idea since farmers needed paint for their barns to keep them from falling apart.

“According to a Mail Pouch organization, there may only be around 40 to 50 barns still in existence in Michigan, with most being in horrible repair and even unreadable,” Fowler said. “The barn in Hillsdale is one of the better-preserved advertisements in existence.”