From Design...
GREEN MOUNTAIN TIMBER FRAMES
of bridge between past and present. When the Larsons re-erected it on their property, a group of senior citizens from Galway chartered a bus to Middletown Springs for a celebratory lunch and talk about the restoration. Among them were descendants of Eva, who unfortunately passed away before the event. For many, it was an emotional experience, watching what felt like the resurrection of their own family’ s past.
Sarah recalled Eva’ s story of her father driving the farm’ s first automobile into the barn, becoming flustered, and jolting it right through the opening on the opposite side, yelling,“ Whoa! Whoa!” at the vehicle as if it were a team of horses.
Saving Barns, Preserving Histories
Business often starts, Luke said, with a phone call. The Larsons have built a multistate network of people on the lookout for old, neglected barns. Sometimes, though, it is a new property owner who calls to say,“ We have this old barn that needs saving,” or perhaps it’ s someone with a collapsing stone foundation who wants to find a period barn to replace what was lost.
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“ We take very seriously the process of removing the structure from its original location,” Luke said. Ideally, he explained, they prefer to preserve the structure where it stands. But if the original owners cannot afford to do that, the Larsons would still rather see the barn saved than collapse into the earth. Part of the company’ s philosophy is to keep a structure as close geographically to its original site as possible.“ We prefer to keep Vermont barns in Vermont if possible,” Luke explained. After the preserved timbers are labeled and stored, and once a new owner and location are found, that is when the real joy begins. The event of bringing an historic structure into a community often generates high enthusiasm, and Luke not only arrives with a team of builders to erect the frame, but with a trove of historical information on the barn and its former owners culled from town and county records and local residents’ stories.
16 VERMONT MAGAZINE