~ Indulge in building something that has never been built before. Town & Country invites you on a journey to the elegance and natural warmth of a Northern White Cedar home. With our award winning architecture and incomparable craftsmanship we open the doors to a whole new experience.
IN MEMORIUM
“Town and County Cedar Homes started in a unique manner, and we continue to be unique in this industry,” says President, Stephanie Baldwin, remembering the history of the company and its humble beginnings.
Some 67 years ago, two young men from Boyne Falls, Ben Organik and Bernie Kondrat, decided to break away from the herds barreling out of Northern Michigan towards the promise of prosperity in the emerging automotive industry of Flint and Detroit. As boys, the two friends built fences out of local wood and as time passed, noticed that some fence posts stood sturdy and strong, while others collapsed and rotted. The sturdy posts were cedar, Northern White Cedar, to be exact. Because it thrives in wetlands, cedar is the hardest to come by, but it is clearly the most durable and workable, cleanest, most insect and decay resistant wood available in the United States.
After the war, the friends made a decision: Stay here, in God’s country and live off the land. The men hooked up a chain to a horse and began dragging white cedar back to the homestead, cutting each piece, carving each notch, pouring each block of concrete. Within weeks, the first home had been built, by hand, from the land, and Town & Country Cedar Homes was born.
What Ben and Bernie did not know was that they had just created a vertically integrated company. A company that governs and controls every detail from the harvesting of the natural resource to the finished product. The advantage of such a company? Complete quality control and — clearly — the finished product is a work of art.
Woodworkers, many of whom represent the second or third generations of families that have worked for Town & Country, revere their role as descendants of the founders. They hold the authority to act as Bernie and Ben did and to invent new designs for trusses, spindles and balconies. From benches and flower boxes to roof systems, new creations from the company’s talent pool find their way into nearly every Town & Country Cedar Home.
Today, Town & Country Cedar Homes, Cedar Products & Construction services salute their founders, Ben Organik and Bernie Kondrat. “Bernie was a unique man – hard working and humble – who believed in the product he manufactured and sold”, states Steve Biggs, “His passing in May, 2007, left us with renewed dedication to building the finest log homes in America.” Like Ben and Bernie, the new generation of Town & Country is determined that their cedar homes and products will always be the mostly highly distinguished in the log home industry. With the passing of sixty years, Town & Country may have lost their founding members, but not their dedication to excellence.
