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The Problem
| Barns are being lost. Barns
that are not being used or maintained are in danger of loss.
It is estimated that Vermont has about 12,000
historic barns and loses about 1,000 barns every 10 years; but no one knows for sure.
Saving barns depends
on individual action funds. State barn preservation grants assist less than 20 barn owners per year. |
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Communities need their barns. The
state and every town need their barns for the history they represent and for the current value they contribute to
Vermont's landscape and economy.
Barns need communities to come to their
aid.
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The Model
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International Volunteers for
Peace working with community volunteer carpenters, under the
direction of a preservation expert, stabilizing and repairing
a unique hay hood on a modified old English barn. Mount Holly,
Summer 2006.
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The community of
Mount Holly (population 1,241) found all of the historic barns
in town (52), determined that 20 were in need of some work, and that five were
urgently in need of immediate attention. The
Mount Holly Barn Preservation Association was formed in 2005. The group wrote grants, raised funds, and mobilized volunteers.
As a result, two barns that were in danger of total or partial collapse were stabilized. Spreading barn walls were cabled together, barn interiors were cleaned out, dumpsters were filled, and grounds were cleared and graded. These activities provided access to the barns so that repairs could be made and future work planned. |
The Project
SaveVermontBarns (SVB) is a project that will assist other towns to use the Mount Holly model and to become part of a statewide force for barn preservation. The project has three parts:
- Survey (or Census) of Barns. Finding, counting, and briefly evaluating the condition of the Town's historic barns.
- Assessment of Barns. More detailed assessment of architecture, structure, previous use, condition, and preservation status.
- Share Results. Pooling results with those of other Vermont towns to create an SVB database that can become a power tool for statewide barn preservation.
Prior to beginning the Barn Survey, it's a good idea to read through the other steps that are part of the project. Depending on your town and your barn owners, you may find that you can conduct various steps in parallel, and they often overlap. By reading up in advance, you can take advantage of unanticipated opportunities to gather more information.
NEXT Step >> Conduct Survey
NOTE: All forms and instructions presented on this site are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader to be viewed. If you do not have Acrobat installed on your computer, you can download it free of charge here. Users on dial-up connections may experience some delays with larger files. If you have problems downloading forms or instructions, please
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