PENNSYLVANIA Man makes a mission out of saving old barns



Wood from old barns is finding its way into homes and furniture.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- As a wrecking-ball operator for an excavating company, John High hated knocking down old barns so that the wood could be burned or carted off to a landfill.
If he knew a barn was doomed, he'd try to get to it early to save some of the more valuable and easier-to-remove pieces, such as doors or floor boards.
And as miserable as High felt when he was laid off in 1990, just as his son was about to be born, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. It allowed him to explore the idea of saving barns full time.
Now, 13 years later, High has a long list of woodworkers, restoration companies and preservationists who buy wood from him, whether it's an entire barn or individual beams and boards salvaged from a dilapidated structure.
"I've made it my mission to save as many as I can," High said.
High runs his business, The Barn Saver, from his home in Lancaster County. He has saved all or parts of more than 200 barns or other structures, such as sheds and outhouses.
Using the wood
A majority of the barns become homes, and the boards or beams find their ways into other barns, homes, furniture or crafts.
Saving the barns is a kind of penance for High, 41. But he also loves preserving the craftsmanship that went into the original hand-hewn boards, and the quality of the wood that endures for a century and longer.
In many cases, barns are being felled to make way for development in the fast-developing Philadelphia suburbs or the Poconos. Three years ago, High disassembled a barn that was in the path of the Pine Grove Landfill expansion in Schuylkill County.
Some barns on working farms are obsolete, because they cannot accommodate the huge pieces of farm equipment or round hay bales that farmers need to shelter.
The oldest barn High ever dismantled was a 265-year-old structure in Chester County, which was rescued by preservationists who wanted to rebuild it in a nearby park.
High said he gets calls from around the country from people who want him to save a barn. Because he can't feasibly work beyond eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware or Maryland, he has sought to compile a database of similar companies around the country to whom he can refer the work.
Companies have done this kind of work from Illinois to New Hampshire as far back as the 1970s, but when High got into the business, he said only the Amish were doing it in Pennsylvania to supply wood for other barns or furniture.
Why preserve?
Many preservationists believe the barns should be preserved at their original sites for the sake of local heritage.
No one knows how many historic barns remain, but John Olson of the National Trust for Historic Preservation estimated that, nationally, thousands are lost each year to demolition or contractors like High who recycle the structures.
Some communities feel cheated out of a landmark. That's why the National Trust urges landowners to leave the barns where they are, even if the structures are adapted to another use, such as a restaurant or museum.
"Obviously, the easiest way to save a barn is to find a use for it on the spot," Olson said.
High has packed up and shipped complete barns as far as away as California and North Carolina. The process is grueling and includes drawing up a blueprint and labeling each board with an aluminum stamp. The barns are dismantled, board by board with crowbars, sledgehammers and hands, High said.
High tries to save everything: He has a garage full of bricks, doorknobs, hinges and long iron nails for sale. He even has two cupolas from a suburban Harrisburg barn he took down a few months ago.
"They worked so hard" to build the barns, High said. "And we're just sending to a landfill? I don't think so."