Nebraska Office

PO Box 53

Wayne, NE 68787

(402) 286-BARN

“Taking pride in restoring our history and recreating the past”

19^th Century Barn Given a New Life

Press Release

For Immediate Release

June 28, 2006 For more information, contact: Michelle Sterling-Evans

Vice President of Sales and Marketing

Barn Builders, Inc.

michelle@barn-builders.com

19^th Century Barn Given a New Life

Electric lighting is introduced to cities across the United States; James A. Garfield is in office; George Eastman patents roll film for cameras; and a very unique barn is being built near Nevada, IA.

The year is 1880, and the barn has become widely known as the Fernald Barn since it is located nearest to the town of Fernald, IA. Fast forward 120 years later and the barn is once again undergoing major construction, this time to bring it back to its former glory. In 1853, William Handsacker came to the United States from England, settling in Iowa. He purchased his farm land from the government for $4 per are and built his homestead in 1875. Five years later, J.W. Handsacker began construction on the barn. The farm, including the barn has stayed in the Handsacker family to the present day with Gary Handsacker and his mother Gloria owning and marinating the farm. Gary is the great-grandson of J.W. Handsacker.

The Fernald Barn is a unique structure due to both is square shape and the fact that it is the second oldest standing barn in Iowa. If you travel the countryside of central Iowa you will find that most of the barns are very similar in design to one another, the square shape of this barn is found mainly out east and was utilized by the Pennsylvania Dutch. Both the barn and the house have been very well maintained over the years. With little modification to the barn, its original structural integrity remains intact. For the barn to survive as well as it did in Iowa’s harsh agricultural climate is a estimate to how proud the family is of the barn and the care that they took to maintain it as best as they could.

The barn is being restored by Barn Builders, Inc. a Pella, IA based firm that specializes in restoring old barns and has a line of new barns that imitate the old timber-frame style barn found centuries ago. Some of the items that will undergo the restoration process include rebuilding the existing limestone foundation, replacing all of the original windows and doors, and repainting the white barn back to its original red color. Barn Builders’ owner and CEO, Bruce Willemsen, stated that one of the unique things that he noticed about the barn was that it was not robbed much of its original material. One of the first things that the Barn Builders’ crew did was to straighten the central structural timbers, which were causing the middle to sag. To do this, the central posts were dug out and raised six inches using concrete footings. In the process the restoration work to the 10-inch logs, Willemsen said that the crew came to an amazing discovery.

“One evening we counted the rings on one of the central posts during the ride back to Pella, we dated it back to 1770. Despite the age of the posts, they are still pretty sturdy and will remain part of the barn as well as the barn’s original eight by eight oak beams.

Willemsen agrees that the barn is in impressive condition but states that the reconstruction construction came just in time. “I didn’t understand how the barn was still standing – the northwest corner had broken off and the three remaining corners had rotted out. This barn is very unique in that you just don’t see these old barns any longer. More of the pre-1930s barns are gone by now.”

The whole barn is comprised of post and beam construction, using either wooden pegs for the larger planks or hand-made square-headed nails for the smaller pieces. The original wooden pegs were reused in the restoration process. “The barn is being historically rebuilt,” said Willemsen, “Working on these barns we have to figure out how and why they where put together as good or better as the original structure.” Willemsen said that the oak wood used for the barn was most likely brought down from Minnesota. “One of the floorboards is 19 inches wide, you can’t even get that anymore – some of the boards are over twenty feet long and aren’t even spliced; they’re all one piece.”

Willemsen added that all of the original materials for the barn had to be brought into the area. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it took close to two years to build. Back then there weren’t any modern conveniences – it all had to be done manually. All the wood for the barn had to be cut by hand. There must have been some handy carpenters who built this,” states Willemsen.

Another interesting factor about the original barn was that the siding was shiplap siding, which according to Willemsen is the type of siding that was more commonly seen on Victorian houses during that era. “Shiplap siding is definitely more expensive that board and batten siding, which was more commonly used for barns.” Willemsen explains this because at the time, barns were a sign of wealth – a status symbol. “The bigger and fancier the barn, the wealthier you were.”