Tag Archives: national barn alliance

Welcome New Board Members!

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National Barn Alliance held their Annual Meeting on Sunday, June 3. The purpose of the meeting was to review progress made toward the mission of the organization.

Charles Leik, outgoing President, spoke to the progress since the 2007 Albany, NY meeting that the NBA:

– Hosted five spring conferences for general attendance and five winter Board meetings.

– Conducted ten or eleven monthly conference calls annually.

– Participated in five National Trust for Historic Preservation conferences

– Received approximately $60,000 in grants from four sources,

– Initiated the Teamwork and Timbers program of two quarter-scale historic barn models at schools, universities and expositions in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Quebec.

– Engaged an Administrator to manage Membership, Social Media, Publicity and Conference Planning.

– Almost doubled Membership in 2012 and Barnalliance.org is becoming the national “go to” site for barn-related information.

– The leading internet site of “Barns Available for Events”; to support this emerging business of renting barns, especially for wedding receptions.

The organization is in good financial standing.

New board members were elected. Please welcome:

Term 2011-2014

Jeff Marshall, PA

Jeffrey L. Marshall, is the President of Heritage Conservancy, a regional land trust and historic preservation organization headquartered in Doylestown, Pa with a staff of approximately twenty people.   Mr. Marshall has been involved in historic preservation and land conservation for more than 35 years. In addition to the direct preservation of thousands of acres of open space, Mr. Marshall has directed conservation subdivision projects and open space planning projects.  He has written open space plans and provides land preservation consultant services to numerous Bucks County and Northampton County municipalities.  He has been a multiple presenter at the prestigious national Land Trust Alliance Rally as well as both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Land Trust Association annual conferences. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association Policy Committee.  In 2007, Mr. Marshall served on the Bucks County Open Space Task Force, a 24-person, blue ribbon committee, that resulted in a new $87.7 Million countywide open space initiative.

In 2003 he was the recipient of the inaugural “Bucks County Preservation Legacy Award” created in his honor for more than 20 years of leadership and dedication for the preservation of historic places and open spaces by the Bucks County Commissioners.  He is also the recipient of gubernatorial, Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives commendations for career achievements in conservation and preservation.

Term 2012-2015

Janie-Rice Brother, KY

Janie-Rice Brother is Senior Architectural Historian with the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, a joint venture of the Kentucky Heritage Council and the University Of Kentucky Department Of Anthropology. Brother, a native of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, grew up on a beef cattle and tobacco farm which has been in her family since the 1820s. Her love of rural resources stems from her farming background, which she first explored in her master’s thesis.  Since that time, Brother has documented barns in the middle Atlantic, including over 400 farms in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Since returning to Kentucky, Brother has continued to study and document the barns of the Commonwealth, both as representative types and as part of the historic farmstead. Her most recent project, funded by a Preserve America grant, involves the creation of the Heritage Farm website, which will provide a national and even international forum through which Kentucky’s historic agricultural resources can be understood and appreciated—far beyond the confines of the Commonwealth’s borders.

Susan Quinnell, ND

I spent the last 11 years professionally and advocationally involved with the study and preservation of historic buildings. I arranged many workshops for students, the public and professionals, wrote grants, surveys, National Register of Historic Places nominations and for the past seven years have dealt with historic preservation issues in a boom energy-driven economy with rapid change affecting treasured undeveloped and ranch landscapes. I work with project proponents, other governmental agencies, cultural resource contractors and the public as we try to merge new development with the precious resources we have from the past, both natural and cultural. Regarding barns specifically, I am one of the 49 people out of 50 currently alive that have little farming background, but am increasingly concerned that agricultural resources are disappearing far faster than we can even record them, much less fully understand their functions and full histories.

Bob Sherman, IL 

Robert W. Sherman has been interested in Ethnic, Rural and Vernacular architecture since the early 1960’s when he was a Research Associate and Field Representative for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. He collected artifacts for the Society’s museums, in addition to cataloging and moving 3 barns full of rural and agricultural artifacts and moving them to Stonefield Museum. in the summer of 1967, prior to going to the Cooperstown Graduate Program, he spent the summer finding, measuring and photographing Wisconsin’s Ethnic and Rural structures for the future outdoor museum to be called “Old World Wisconsin”.

Bob continues to search out interesting barns and farmsteads when ever he travels, and he is a member of many of the Barn Preservation Societies and Networks and a member of the National Barn Alliance from its early days. He gives barn lectures on various barn related topics and leads barn tours in the Midwest. He is currently working on two publications. “The Great Barns of Illinois, from Log to Stone” and  “The Housebarns of America” He also keeps current a annotated bibliography of books about barns for the National Barn Alliance’s web page. He is currently a member of the Sangamon County Preservation Commission and a board member of the Illinois Barn Alliance.

Don Truax, IL

Don Truax is a committed preservationist with over 30 years. He is principal of Donald Truax Associates in the greater Chicago area, which provides community-based historic preservation services. Truax has served on numerous boards and commission of historic preservation in Illinois.  Don has in MSE in Computer Technology from University of Michigan and a BS Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Pam Whitney Gray, OH

Pamela Whitney Gray spent most of her career in commercial art and the printing industry. In later years she enjoyed her position as an assistant librarian in a small library in Colorado. After twenty years in the Rocky Mountains Pam returned to Mount Vernon, Ohio to spend time with her parents in their golden years. Pam and her father, Chuck Whitney (1918- 2009), spent many days traveling Ohio and the surrounding states doing barn inspections and helping barn owners to understand and save their barns. These were wonderful learning experiences and she soon realized she had the same passion as he did for barns and their history. She is continuing her Dad’s work, helping to save old barns and to spread the story they tell of our agricultural heritage. Pam’s first book, Americanization of the Family Barn, released in December of 2009, discusses the cultural influences from the Old Country and environmental influences the settlers faced after they arrived in the New World. It gives a brief overall view of the evolution of barns. A second book is at the printers.
Please join us in moving the mission forward to preserve America’s rural heritage.

Book Review: Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement

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Book review by Charles Leik, Chair of the National Barn Alliance.

It was at the National Barn Alliance’s (NBA) 2009 Shaker Hill, Kentucky conference that I first learned about the phenomenon of Quilt Barns. Several Kentucky ladies gave an enthusiastic presentation and the next day as I drove serpentine secondary roads northward to the Ohio River I saw perhaps a dozen of the “Real Deal” –8’ x 8’ squares of a favorite quilting pattern on weathered barns.

I already had an acquaintance with quilting as I recalled mother and her friends working at the quilting frame set up in our parlor in the early 1950s. The ladies seated around the frame chatted while with practiced skill made small, uniform stitches to sew the pattern to the batting.

In addition to this tenuous connection to quilts I have been long engaged in preservation of our heritage barns and anything that draws attention to these endangered structures and causes them to be maintained is a positive for me.

With this background I was pleased to learn that the Ohio University Press, Athens released in early 2012 a volume devoted to the history of the quilt barn movement.

The book printed on high quality paper with dozens of captioned photographs is everything that a lover of traditional folk culture could desire. Author Suzi Parron and barn quilt pioneer Donna Sue Groves take the reader to the origins of the Quilt Trails in Appalachia and then to other states, particularly those of the Heartland. There are individual chapters on Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan as well as chapters devoted to local events in which the author participated.

The reader meets the dozens of local heroines (and heroes) who organized the Trails in their communities. I was pleased that a photo of the quilt art on the owner’s barn accompanied the discussion of a pattern and its personal importance to the family.

Cindi Van Hurk, Michigan is representative of the many quilt trail pioneers in stating, “The Alcona County Quilt Trail Project has a very positive impact on our economy, while also fueling community pride within all areas of our county.”

This reviewer was happy to read the author’s conclusion that, “An unexpected benefit of the project has been the preservation of barns and other farm buildings.”

Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement is highly recommended for a quick education of this art genre and for aficionados of American vernacular architecture. Barn Quilts is a 240-page paperback at $29.95 by Swallow Press/Ohio State University. Order from University of Chicago Distribution Center, 11030 South Langley Ave., Chicago, IL 60628 or call 773.702.7000.

Hidden in Plain Site: Side-Gabled Log Barn

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This is a guest post by Jeroen van den Hurk, Ph.D. He is an Architectural Historian based in North Carolina.

You never know what the lush climate of North Carolina hides until the dead of winter. While out of a drive on Sunday afternoon, I came across this abandoned side-gabled log barn in Halifax County, NC. This is an unusual building for eastern North Carolina. It was a one-story, double-pen or dogtrot structure used to store hay. It appeared to be an earthfast building with the log sill laid directly on the ground.  The logs were halved and saddle notched at the corners, and there was evidence of pegs near the center of the walls to keep the logs together.  The plate was hewn, and there was evidence of both cut nails and wire nails, suggesting that the barn was at least 100-years old.  The rafters may have been replaced at some point and the roof was clad in a standing-metal seam roof. One of the gable ends still had the original weatherboard siding, whereas the other gable end was covered with standing-seam metal.

Time, storms, and neglect had taken it’s toll, but it was still standing.

 

More photos of this barn:

The Grooms’ Heritage Barn. How a Family Restored their 1915 Stockman’s Barn

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This is a post by Charles Leik. Charles is chairman of the National Barn Alliance.

It was James Grooms’ great-great grandfather (five generations back) Martin Becker, a German immigrant, who settled in north central Nebraska (Cherry County) in the 1880s.  He built a typical barn for this ranching and diversified farming area that housed the cattle, work horses and several cows that produced milk for family use.

 

According to family lore, this first Becker did well given high wheat prices during WWI and as a result raised his second barn around 1915, which was a very large barn for the area.  Mr. Becker soon retired and passed the ranch and barn to his daughter Anna and son-in-law Edgar J. Grooms.

 

During the ‘dirty 30’s’ the barn was lifted up and set down by a tornado. At that time, it was disassembled, turned to face a different direction and rebuilt with the addition of large side sheds that highlight the changes in farming occurring. It also lost one of the cupolas.  In the 60’s a metal-covered north shed was added, which provided ample space for the growing cattle feeding operation and move from diversified farming. At this time James’ grandfather George and his sons entered the purebred Angus bull business, i.e. sold select breeding stock for other ranchers.

 

By the 80’s, like so many other western barns, the deterioration was underway as the cattle feeding operation changed and purpose built pole barns were constructed.   First it was the loss of the cupola from high winds and then gradually the prairie winds blew off the wood shingles installed in 1933.  Fortunately the foundation was of poured concrete and dated from this same reconstruction, thus the structure was solid.

 

In 2007 the Grooms family decided to rescue the barn, the centerpiece of the 26 Ranch and repository of so many memories.  In the winter of 2008 a replacement cupola was constructed on the ground.  Dimensions were determined from old photographs and in the spring a crane raised the module at the gable end to a location past the hay hood, and “come alongs” winched the cupola mounted on skids along the ridge to a central location.

 

The weathered wood shingles were gradually replaced with a metal roof.  Family members did the labor over the Memorial, Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays.  The roofing began with the west top level and the pressure mounted after the old shingles were removed in stages. As a level was stripped, the steel had to be installed before the end of the holiday to cover the exposed deck.  Four weeks were required to do the west side (the Memorial Day and Fourth holidays) and after gaining experience, only two weeks on the east side (Labor Day).

 

James, who lives 600-miles away in Kansas City built window sills, moldings, some of the four-pane windows and some doors at his residence during the winters.  He worked hard to save a number of the original windows and their unique period glass. This leaves barn siding repair (to be complete in part with reclaimed wood from another Becker barn!), painting and replacement of detail trim for the future.  But as James says contemplating the future, “she’s high and dry and time is on our side now.”

 

James stresses that except for the rented crane, that family members provided all the labor.  “There was no way we could afford or justify the labor to install the roof.  However, after a slow start my father, Alfred, and I became pretty adept at installing steel.  And, all the rest is pretty much basic carpentry”.

 

The James family took an intimidating job and divided it into segments over a number of years that made it both manageable and affordable.  James, a passionate barn lover, concludes that, “I tell everyone…that you can do this yourself”.

Forming the Future of Barns: Winter Meeting

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Are you part of a barn preservation organization? And are looking to network and gain knowledge to strengthen your organization? Then…

Join us for our Winter Meeting!!! February 17-19, 2012 • Upper Arlington, OH •  The Amelita Mirolo Barn

As part of the mission of the National Barn Alliance, we are committed providing a platform for barn preservation organizations and owners to connect and share information. On February 18, we invite barn preservation organizations to join us for networking, educational workshops, informative speakers, and socializing.

Joel McCarty, Executive Director of the Timber Frames Guild, will share his organization’s secrets for success as the morning keynote and Alex Greenwood, co-founder The NJ Barn Company and co-author, Barn: The Art of a Working Building, will speak to adaptive reuse for barns in today’s world.

Workshops will cover barn surveying, marketing the organization, and membership development. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks will be served throughout the day.

Previously the winter meeting was limited to Board members as important face time for an organization where the current Board hails from eight states; so usually our “meetings” are necessarily monthly conference calls. This year the NBA is attempting for the first time ever to bring together representatives of all barn preservation organizations.  The goal is to foster improved communication and the interchange of Best Practices.  We need to learn from each other in order to better promote the awareness and preservation of America’s Heritage Barns and Rural Vernacular Architecture.  This is an exciting development for our small niche of preservation.

Please let us know if you plan to attend to info@barnalliance.org.

NBA 2012 Winter Meeting Full Agenda