228
S. Ridge Street 
Although it appears to be an original historic structure, the carriage barn is actually an amalgam of several historic barns. The impetus for the barn's construction began when the museum was offered a valuable collection of tools on the condition that there would be a safe and secure place to house them. The Loop family's original barn was not available at the time, so volunteers decided to solve the problem with elbow grease and old-fashioned community spirit.
The 1870 - 1900 era design for the barn came from the project manager, George Lawson's, grandfather, John McGregor, who had built many barns north of Deckerville. The building was constructed of salvaged wood from a late 1800's barn on Gardner Line Road and beams and wood were obtained from several other structures. The roof metal came from another barn that had burned. The beams are mostly hand-hewn. Many local men, including several members of the Jaycees, volunteered on the barn crew and the Port Sanilac volunteer fire department added the roof in one day. The barn, which was completed in 1979, was built at a cost of about $4200.
The carriage barn exhibits include the Carman family's undertaker's hearse, Dr. Loop's buggy, a two-seater wagon, and a road cutter/sleigh from the Downington area, all from about the 1880's. There are also antique blacksmith and woodworker tools, farm equipment, and commercial fishing gear.
The dairy shrine is a museum building exhibit that places a spotlight on the local dairy industry. For many decades, Sanilac County was the leading milk-producing county in Michigan. In 2007, the county still had 19,500 dairy cows in residence. In July of 1970, the Sanilac County Historical Society, under the direction of society president and project manager, Norman Smith, dedicated the new dairy history exhibit to honor dairy farmers and the part that dairies played in the history of the county. The exhibit is housed in what was originally a chicken feed storage building on the museum grounds.
The little red building with the white windows is one of the few structures in the historic village that is original to the Loop family farm. It was moved in November of 2007 from its home site south of the mansion's west wing near the driveway. It is now tucked in between the general store and the carriage barn. The exhibit includes utensils and equipment used on diary farms and in small dairy plants in the early days of the dairy industry.
