Barn makes a cross-country trip

Historic timber-framed barns moved for new uses.

DAYTON (AP) — People are dismantling, moving and rebuilding some timber-framed barns to preserve the old structures, many of which have been lost due to neglect, housing developments and natural causes.

Rudy Christian has a family business in Wayne County that dismantled a Civil War-era barn in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg and moved it to George Rogers Clark State Park near Springfield. He estimates at least one-third of Ohio’s timber-framed barns — many of them built in the late 1800s — have been lost.

“They represent really the peak of ... one of the trades that this country was built on, and that’s timber framing,” Christian said. “It represents such an important part of our cultural heritage.”

The construction method involves heavy timber usually joined with wooden pegs. Today’s barn construction typically uses smaller lumber fastened with nails.

Steve Gordon, formerly of the Ohio Historical Society, estimates 35,000 timber-framed barns built in Ohio before 1910 survive.

Ashland County, the first county in the state to conduct a barn survey, documented more than 1,450 barns, most built between 1880 and 1920, said survey volunteer Nancy Rowland.

Using similar craftsmanship today, it would cost $250,000 or more to rebuild a timber-framed bank barn, a two-level structure with an earthen bank that provides access to the upper level, Christian estimates. And the beams for the older barns’ timber frames — which came from the virgin forests of Ohio — are irreplaceable, he said.

Moving and adapting a barn undermines its historic integrity, but Christian said it is the best option in some cases.

Relocated barns have become rental halls and even homes.

Marion and Michael Rogers, timber-frame woodworkers from Covington, dismantled a timber-frame barn near Wapakoneta in 2002.

Two tractor-trailers and a straight truck moved the lumber — including two hickory logs 60 feet long — halfway across the country to become a home on the high plains of Colorado, about 35 miles from Denver.

An opening through which horses long ago pulled wagons of loose hay now is a timber-framed window looking out on prairie, wheat fields and the front range of the Rockies, including Pikes Peak.

Ken Hanks, who along with his wife, Dyanne Caprio, moved in in December, sees the rugged, scarred barn as a metaphor for endurance.

He acknowledges that his friends were skeptical at first that a barn could be converted into a quality home. But since moving in, he and his wife have hosted parties, and “almost everyone thought it was unique and pretty darn cool,” he said.

Paul Spencer, a Cleveland native and self-described “barn geek,” seven years ago moved a 1799 Dutch barn 80 miles to his property near Ancramdale in New York’s Hudson River valley. He likens barns to cathedrals.

“Humans react to vast contained space. It inspires awe in them,” Spencer said.

His barn, which stands four stories high, is the site of fundraisers and wedding receptions, with rental rates of $4,500 to $5,500, according to Spencer’s barn Web site, www.circa1799.com.