Taking Care of Your Old Barn -- The Why, the How, the Person Behind the Book

Studying a local barn with Curtis B. Johnson (center).

The Waterford Historical Society appreciated a visit from Curtis B. Johnson as October wrapped up. Curtis is the author of the very useful guide "Taking Care of Your Old Barn: Ten Tips for Preserving and Reusing Vermont's Historic Agricultural Buildings." The entire contents of the book is now available online, which makes it easy to access this information: http://www.uvm.edu/~vhnet/hpres/publ/barnb/bbtit.html

Before his evening presentation, Curtis toured four of Waterford's classic barns: from the Koeppel (Bonnett) barn, to the George Bullock barn, to Mary Florio's linked barns, to the very posh "Locust Grove Farm" large barn (just across the town line) and its humble partner out in the field, perhaps Waterford's oldest standing barn.

Then came the presentation, which focused on the history of Vermont barns and how to identify the kind and age of the structures we see around us.

What would Waterford be like without its historic barns? Let's not find out ... instead, visit our ongoing Barn Census here.

Meetings of the Waterford Historical Society resume after the snowy season, and there are work groups gathering in the meantime. For more information, contact president Donna Heath or leave a message at the Davies Memorial Library (davieslibraryvt at gmail dot com and 802-748-4609.

Barn designed by Frank Bullock.

More Waterford history and great stories of a community working together: click here.