“I want to save every barn I possibly can,” says John High from his home in Lancaster County, Pa.
Every weekday High climbs into his old pickup truck and drives to sites ranging from one to three hours away from his home to painstakingly take apart barns and thus save them from demolition.
The American barn is an endangered species. In 1920 it is estimated that there were more than 6.5 million barns in the US. Now we have less than half that number. The old structures have been victims of decay, fire, collapse, bulldozers, and suburban construction.
In 1990, High began The Barn Saver Project. It’s mission is to rescue the buildings he’d always hated destroying. His first project was an 1880s vintage bank barn. He takes the old structures apart, board by board. He saves the flooring, siding, windows, doors, roofing, beams, joists, hardware, and even the contents inside.
“Everything,” High says. “I save everything. There’s value in every piece.”
If the barn will be reset elsewhere then he must carefully preserve the integrity of the buildings by drawing a blueprint and numbering each piece of wood.
High’s Barn Saver Project also strives to lessen the negative environmental effects of deconstruction. He uses mostly crowbars, hammers, and his hands so he is not only saving barns the old-fashioned way with elbow grease—but by saving these barns, he’s also conserving landfill space.
In the 10 years High’s Barn Saver Project has been in operation he has saved and preserved over 200 barns and houses.
High has two large scars on his face and both are barn-inflicted injuries. One is the result of an near fatal fall occurring 30 years ago from the rafters of his uncle’s barn. The other is a recent injury he received while barn saving.
There are other “barn savers” as well. Barnsavers in New Hampshire is a company dedicated to the preservation of that state’s barns.
Barn savers are increasing all over the US. Other such companies are BCR Barn Dismantling in Wisconsin, The Barn People in Vermont, Barnstormers in Ohio, Barnbusters in Illinois, and 18th Century Restorations, Hometown Carpentry, and Rockwood Antique Timber Framing in Pennsylvania.
Last, but not least…there is Barn Again!. This is a national program that provides information to help owners of historic barns rehabilitate them and helps to put the structures back to productive use. Here is an interesting website for barn lovers: www.barnagain.org.
Preserving the American barn is a worthy goal and it’s nice to see these companies achieving success!
