As iconic as the barn is — it can
represent in the American imagination the whole farming lifestyle and economy
— it isn’t often recognized for its value as a historic building. Not an
office building or a home, where the value is more obvious, or even a school or
a factory, where new uses tend to suggest themselves: Barns can fall off the
table in architecture-preservation discussions. Sure, they’re charming, and no
one likes to see a barn slowly falling apart on the landscape. But if a farmer
isn’t using it anymore, what else should we do with it?
Efforts to recognize the usefulness
of barns, and to preserve them, have increased dramatically in recent years. In
1996 Governor Pataki signed the Farmer’s Protection and Farm Preservation Act,
allowing New York citizens to apply for an income-tax credit equal to 25
percent of the cost of rehabilitating a historic barn (built before 1936). Then
in 2000, he unveiled a $2 million Barns Restoration and Preservation Program,
grants for capital repairs to agricultural buildings.
In 1997, the New York State Barn
Coalition — a group of government representatives, citizens, and nonprofits
— formed for the sole purpose of looking out for old barns. Its first two
objectives: “to encourage local/regional support of farms and agriculture,” and
“to raise awareness of our barns’ value.” It also provides educational,
economic, and technical help to people trying to restore barns.
Conferences on barn preservation have
become more commonplace recently as well. Attendees can learn about grants and
other resources, share war stories, and get how-to knowledge. One example is
the Landmark Society’s upcoming Regional Preservation Conference. This year,
for the first time, an entire track is dedicated to historic barns. One session
will show how to date barns by using tree-ring patterns in the building’s
timbers. Another workshop will get into the details of planning and funding a
rehab project.
The biggest threat to barns in the
Greater Rochester area is a changing economy. “It’s principally the declining
agricultural base in the state of New York,” says Professor Michael Tomlan,
Cornell University professor and president of the Barn Coalition. “This state
was the one that led the nation in agricultural invention.” Now, declining
prices and competition with other regions are driving local farmers out of
business. (Tomlan names local apple farmers who are competing against the “vast
orchards” of the Pacific Northwest as an example.) “The small grower is having
a hard time,” he says.
Farmland is slowly being lost while
suburbs continue to grow. Housing developments and commercial centers are
cropping up over and around the fossils that are left behind: You’ll find homes
in rural-suburban places like Mendon or Scottsville where an old barn — maybe
now used for storage, as a garage, or as a novelty to show off to guests —
comes with the house.
“Structures are best used for the
purpose for which they were originally designed,” Tomlan says, “though if
suburbs can make use of them, that’s perfectly fine.”
“Because many barns are now located
in suburbs where commuters are increasingly concerned about the exercise they
are not getting,” he adds, “the structures are increasingly serving as
mini-health centers, for working out on weight machinery. I am always amused by
the size and number of mirrors I encounter.”
Some barns even survive, like little
pockets of the past, in cities. There are a few in Rochester. In that case,
their historic setting is lost, a worry for some preservationists. But the historic
character of the building doesn’t have to be. Barn advocates are most happy if
a barn can be adapted for use as a home or an office without adding tons of
windows, breaking up the floor plan, or adding second stories. It should still
look like a barn.
Another problem for historic barns is
that where farms are still in existence, the old building may not fit the new
agricultural model. A barn built 200 years ago needs to be retrofitted to
accommodate new livestock housing methods — electricity, waste removal
systems, feeding and ventilation systems — and the big machinery that is now
a part of some types of farming. Tomlan points out that in dairy farming,
traditional barns are often set aside because farmers are moving from the
barn-silo pairing in favor of other types of storage, more inexpensive pole
construction, and metal siding.
But historic barns are remarkably
resilient. Part of what gives them their rugged, stoic charm is the fact that
many of them were built to last, with strong materials. It takes quite a bit of
neglect for all the weathered wood siding, roughhewn logs, plank floors, and
dressed beams to completely deteriorate.
“Given that existing structures
generally only need a bit of repair,” Tomlan says, “replacing them with new structures
is simply wasteful.”
The Landmark Society will hold its 19th Annual Regional Preservation Conference,
“Maintaining Hometown Character in the 21st Century,” on Saturday, April 30, at
Trinity Episcopal Church, Fall Street, Seneca Falls, 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. $40.
www.landmarksociety.org, 546-7029 ext 10
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2005.
