JACKSON – The story of the township’s Rova Farms property dates back to its settling by Russian immigrants nearly a century ago.
That history was recalled during a recent Township Council meeting where an advisory board was formed. The mission of this group is to research options of how this recreational property, purchased a few years ago by the municipality, will be utilized by members of the public.
Councilman Alex Sauickie proposed the formation of the citizen advisory board for Rova Farms. As Councilman Nino Borrelli put it, “his efforts and that of Councilman Andrew Kern got the property purchased in 2019 so it could be preserved for residents to enjoy for years to come.”
“This continues our goal on the council to protect Jackson’s environment and natural resources,” Borrelli added.
Sauickie added, “response to the new sub-committee that we are looking to create has been overwhelming. We wrote the ordinance to have up to 10 people participate on that sub-committee. I’m sure we have exceeded interest in that already.”
“We thought we’d get a good response. It seems we were spot on and that people recognize it is an important piece of history within the town,” the councilman added.
Elenor Hannum spoke during the ordinance’s public hearing. “Thank you very much for doing this.” She added that Rova Farms and the surrounding area, “has a very, very strong and deep culture especially for the Russian population. Many of them have moved since but the culture and the history that goes back is very precious to me.”
She noted the Russian migration to the area came about when Russia was under Soviet control and led by Lenin and that “some of these Russians sold themselves into indentured servitude “to finally make their way to Jackson and settle here. Many of which would hide their money in the land they lived on.”
Hannum asked the Council, “When it comes to the preservation of this property will there at any time be an opportunity that Jackson Township would sell it to say a developer to maintain it as open space?”
Council President Martin Flemming said the property was purchased through open space funds. “The Council is not in the habit of selling land at all. We are trying to acquire as much as we can to keep open space. The possibility of that happening would be little to none.”
Hannum also asked about the existing building on the property that served as an entertainment spot for residents of the community and beyond. It even featured a visit in the 1970s by singer Bruce Springsteen and his band.
“It has been mentioned that it would be demolished,” she noted.
“It will be. There have been people who have been through it trying to pull the more historic pieces out. They are trying to get a whole wall out that has a historic mural and have that restored. There is an asbestos issue with the building. That is going to be a problem with it coming down,” Flemming responded.
“The building is not salvageable,” the council president added. “We are just going to get everything out of it that we can. It sustained a lot of damage recently from people breaking in.”
“Is there any way that, that footprint of that structure could be saved? The reason why I am saying this is that many of you may not be aware that during the culture and history of Rova Farms, the Pavilion was there. It was right on the lake. Every summer, the Russian people would come here from all parts of this country to celebrate with each other and to join together,” Hannum added.
She said, “there would be these grand parties and dinners and my brother and I used to sneak in at a very young age and because of the (prior) demolition, that part of the heritage is completely gone. Jackson did a disservice by demolishing it. It is just wiped clean. My concern is that this structure that hosted many other events would just go along the wayside and the history would be gone.”
The Council President responded, “feelings aside though sometimes a building just cannot be salvaged. It wouldn’t be financially feasible or prudent for us to do it. I understand historical pieces but the building is slated to be taken down,”
Councilman Steven Chisholm said he and Councilman Sauickie would be serving on the advisory committee and recommended that once it is formed if Hannum had any specific ideas “by all means bring them to us.”
“If it is something that is logistically possible, we’ll consider it. There has been nothing decided other than for safety and other purposes that building needs to come down. Nothing else has been determined,” Councilman Chisholm said.
Sauickie informed Hannum how to apply to serve on the committee by filling out a citizens leadership form which can be found on the township website. “Put that in and we are going to choose members. The mix that we proposed in the ordinance include an educator in town as well as a historian, someone from the Jackson Pathfinders who has already responded and Green Acres.”
“I’ve been in the building a couple of times and there is definitely an asbestos problem and definitely a water damage problem. It has to come down but I think we will do whatever we can to preserve what we can within the building including things like menus that have been sitting there for over a decade that look brand new in some cases,” the councilman added.
“We think that a lot of the history could be taught in an educational way – at least that is an idea we’ve been kicking around. Whether that is the history of the area or the wildlife in the area. We want an educator to help us frame this out,” Sauickie added.
Hannum said she e-mailed each of the councilmen links to historical preservation grant possibilities. “National and state. Please look into that and try to utilize those resources for grants.”
She told The Jackson Times “not only did the Russian community host grand parties, we grew up ice skating on the lake – my brother and his friends always had hockey. We had bonfires on the ice, went fishing and swimming. There used to be a tree alongside of the waterfall. We would climb the tree, walk out onto the large fat limb that went over the water and jump in.”
Hannum recalled, “the town cut it down probably because it was pretty dangerous. The lake is full of pickerel, large snapping turtles who come up onto land to nest, and water moccasins. The Cassville side where I lived has woods full of wild blueberries and mountain laurel that is beautiful in bloom. My mother would send my brothers and I out into the woods with bowls to forage for blueberries on weekends to make blueberry pancakes.”
“There were boarding houses, cottages that were owned by the Russians. They were a tight knit community that really stayed to themselves,” Hannum added.
