Barn Grant Season: Have You Considered Applying?

Waterford has a stunning assortment of agricultural barns, many of them historic, and all of them adding to the town's character of people working with the landscape. Check out many of them here: https://waterford-vt-barn-census.blogspot.com

 If you have an agricultural structure (not a house) that needs help, consider this matching program. We've helped residents qualify for it before! The state notice arrived this morning:

 

THE 2027 BARN PRESERVATION GRANT APPLICATIONS ARE NOW AVAILABLE!

 

The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation is pleased to announce the 2027 round of matching state barn grants. Funding up to $20,000 is available for work to preserve and restore historic agricultural buildings.

 

Eligible work includes restoration and repair of:

• Roofs
• Frames
• Windows
• Foundations
• Other important components of historic agricultural buildings

 

The 2027 Barn Preservation Grant Application and Manual are available at:

https://accd.vermont.gov/historic-preservation/funding/barn-grants

 

Applications are due Monday, December 7, 2026.

 

If you have any questions about the application materials, please email caitlin.corkins@vermont.gov or call Caitlin at 802-828-3047.

 

National Register Farm in Waterford: The Barn Story

The Caledonian-Record today (October 27, 2018) printed a column by Peggy Pearl that looks at the construction of this Waterford barn from fresh angles. It's called West View Farm in its National Register listing and our town barn census. Here is Peggy Pearl's commentary:

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.

First Annual Waterford, Vermont, Barn Tour

Our self-driving barn tour was off to a lovely start today, as a soft mist clung to the hills before a bright sunny day. Here are a few photos as generous barn owners prepared to open their historic structures to visitors.

Donna Heath's display of old tools and "parts":

Donna's photo display, giving visitors a sense of farm history, as well as the less accessible upper floor of her barn:

Mary Florio's welcome to visitors at her 1857 double barn:

Mary's collection of photos shared by the Remick family, who owned the barn before her, over generations:

Sharron Caplan's decorative entryway to the barn at Dream Catcher Farm:

The event room on the main barn floor at Dream Catcher, ready for the next gathering:

In addition to these wonderful opportunities, the Lee family opened its "high drive" (not visible from Route 18) so that 94-year-old Mrs. Geneva Powers Wright could see the interior of the barn, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Visitors at the Davies Memorial Library shared their passion for Waterford's barns and beauty. The Concord Historical Society also hosted a table during the group's open house today, for the barn tour maps and barn documents. Heartfelt thanks to all who collaborated, share resources, visited, smiled.

To see more of the barns in detail, click here:  http://waterford-vt-barn-census.blogspot.com

And one last reminder: If your Vermont town would like to hear about how Waterford's history group (a library interest group) is documenting our barns, simply and effectively, let us know; we can visit and share our experience.

Now, it's your turn: Did you take any photos of Vermont barns that you'd like to share here?

Our Barns

This year, the UVM Barn Census website hasn't been working, so the state historic preservation team was kind enough to send us back our material listed so far. I've added the other barns documented as of Sept. 2013 as well, and they are all here:

http://waterford-vt-barn-census.blogspot.com/

Just click on that link!

Getting the Barns in a Row - for the Barn-A-Palooza!

The Davies Memorial Library is celebrating its 75th birthday, and the Waterford History Group is honoring this with the first-ever Waterford, Vermont, BARN-A-PALOOZA! The event will be Wednesday July 10 at the library, at 7 pm, and includes a showing of the 20 barns already documented by the volunteers and the barn owners, as well as a display of library history.

Today was "craft the PowerPoint show" day, and it began with setting the barns in order, as shown here. We have some great stories to share! Please mark your calendar to spend the evening of July 10 with us.

The Barn That Moved from Upper Waterford: Barn Census

One of the challenges of the Waterford Barn Census has been assigning a "common name" for each property we learn about. Some have been simpler -- the Lee Farm is still known by that name and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places under the same name. There there's West View Farm, also on the Register under that name -- but better known to older residents as the Hastings place.

As I've been typing each record into the state Barn Census website (sharing information is part of the Census goal), I've named some barns with multiple family names, like the Florio-Remick-Green barn (there were two other families who owned it in the past but they are not often spoken of in terms of the property).

An especially interesting case is the Patricia Powers Barn: that's what it's mostly called now and that's how we've labeled it in the Barn Census. But it was moved from Upper Waterford, and the information about that move -- purchase of the original property from the George and Flora Wallace family, by New England Power; purchase of the barn itself by Gilbert Wright in the 1940s from the power company (which was about to flood the village in the creation of Moore Dam Reservoir); and movement of the barn to its present location beside the home of Patricia Powers -- also goes into the Census.

Here is a handwritten note from the Patricia Powers family, along with a photo of the barn. On the back of the photo is yet one more piece of information that ties the names together: Mr. Wright sold the house to the Powers family, and rebuilt the barn on their houselot while he was rebuilding the house as well, in 1949 or 1950. Many thanks to Andrew and Tanya Powers for gathering this information.

Info for those who live outside Waterford: The Moore Dam was completed in 1954.

We now have 14 barns listed for Waterford on the state website; we'll let you know when the listings become accessible to you (we hope, very soon!).

And this evening's Waterford History Group meeting (6 pm, Wed 4/24, Davies Mem. Library) will review what we've accomplished, which barns are next, and what else (!!) we're planning for this year.

Photographing a Waterford Barn: First Try, Harder Than It Looks

This is Donna Rae Heath's barn on Walsh Road, not far from Styles Pond. I thought it would be simple to photograph -- four sides and you're done! -- but found that capturing the "look" of this friendly old structure isn't that easy. I'll be interested in seeing how the rest of the team develops this skill, as we do the Waterford Barn Census this winter and spring.

Lee Farm

The Lee Farm includes another set of Waterford, Vermont, farm structures already documented; this group was described in a 1982 National Register of Historic Places nomination written by Deborah Noble. The nomination can be found here: http://www.crjc.org/heritage/V19-3.htm

Here is the paragraph that most intrigued me in the nomination:

The large farm complex alludes in its relative grandeur to the early days of what was then known as Waterford Hollow, when that village was formerly of "considerable importance, having a church, store, hotel, oil-mills and saw mill" and when the proximity of Stiles Pond "rendered the locality a pleasant summer retreat."(8) The Stiles family, who settled nearby, were developers of the various mills at the outlet of the pond. After business passed to nearby East St. Johnsbury and Concord, the village declined until now all that is left is the nearby cemetery and several farms bypassed by the newly constructed Interstate 93.

West View Farm

As we prepare to make lists of Waterford's most intriguing barns and outbuildings this week, I'm also looking for farm structures that have already been documented. West View Farm includes a round barn that was the last design of Northeast Kingdom architect Lambert Packard, and was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. For more information, look here: http://www.crjc.org/heritage/V19-49.htm

Here is a short excerpt from the nomination report:

The most notable feature of West View Farm is its round barn. It is the last known work of the distinguished Vermont architect, Lambert Packard (1832-1908). Packard created much of Victorian St. Johnsbury, located about one mile from the farm. In addition to stately homes, his commissions included the following structures in St. Johnsbury: the Fairbanks Museum; the North Congregational Church; the former Fairbanks scale factory; the Atheneum; and the Post Office block. The homes and public buildings he designed can be found across a wide area of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Round barns are rare in Vermont, as they are elsewhere. Twenty three round (as distinct from polygonal) barns were built in Vermont - all in the northern one-third of the State. Their era ended with the start of World War One. A survey done in 1971 determined that twelve of these true round barns remained; five had not survived the preceding five years. At present there are five in Vermont.

The West View Farm round barn was built in 1903 by Fred Quimby, an East Barnet carpenter who was noted for the precision of his work in general and his silos in particular. These skills help to explain why he was able to build the first Vermont round barn in 1899. He built one other round barn which has been moved to and rebuilt at the Shelburne Museum. The West View barn is the last and largest of the three.

Barn Survey: Waterford Historical Starts New Project

At right, speaker Joshua Phillips.

Attentive audience!

Joshua Phillips brought his Vermont barn expertise to the October meeting of the Waterford Historical group, and taught about English-style barns, bank barns, roofs, why round barns were designed, and much more. Handouts on barn details and terminology and a dynamic "PowerPoint" slide show kept us all eager and the conversations afterward were full of enthusiasm.

So -- it looks like our Nov 28 meeting (at the Davies Memorial Library, 6 pm) will focus on who's going to survey which structures (or areas), and setting some priorities. Mr. Phillips suggested that November and April are the best months for taking unobstructed photos of all four sides of a barn or other farm-related building (yes, sugarhouses count!).

For copies of the handouts, look here:

http://www.uvm.edu/~barn/get_ready.html

And if you can't be at the November meeting but you're interested in working on this, or want to suggest some agricultural buildings in town, please do leave a message at the library and one of us will get back to you.

Oh yes -- why do this? Because it will help preserve our barns! The Barn Census is step one in making sure that state and private preservation groups pay attention, and direct some funds, toward the fascinating structures and history that we have right here.