Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009

Rebuilding history: 165-year-old barn being restored after tornado damage

165-year-old landmark being restored after damage in June tornado

In its 165-year history, the oak barn on the Seibert family farm between Belleville and Mascoutah has seen its share of bad weather.

A tornado in 1896 tore off part of the roof and severely damaged one corner of the structure. A second, in 1957, destroyed a machine shed attached to the barn and picked up the roof, turning it 180 degrees before slamming it back down. But a third tornado that roared through the metro-east in June threatened to close the lengthy history book on the old barn for good. The twister scattered the barn's metal roof for miles and shattered its rafters, dropping them on farm equipment below.

"The insurance company didn't seem to think that it was worth what it would cost to fix it," said Darryl Seibert, a member of the seventh generation of farmers who have worked 260 acres of fertile ground along Schneider Road. "It's hard to imagine this farm without it. It's a central part of our family homestead. But it seemed like there might not be any other options."

The barn sat for weeks that turned into months as a shell, open to the elements while Seibert pondered its fate. He wondered whether he could afford to fix the building -- which bears the initials of his great-great-grandfather, Balthaser Knobeloch, scratched into its timbers about two decades before Abraham Lincoln became president. He didn't know whether he could live with himself if he didn't.

Local salvager Barry Moon, who saves mantles, fixtures, lumber, hardware and about anything else he can from to-be demolished buildings and recycles them through his Belleville business, Old House Parts, heard about the barn. He knew just the person to save the barn -- if it was savable.

He got Seibert in touch with Mark Pratt, operator of Antique Logs Unlimited in Kirkwood, Mo., who has built a business on his passion for saving and restoring log cabins and old barns across the Midwest.

"I took one look at it and knew we had to save it," said Mark Pratt, owner of Antique Logs unlimited in Kirkwood, Mo. "It's made with hand hewn, hand cut beams, and you just can't find things like that today. All things considered, it's in pretty good shape."

If the damage to the roof and rafters had a bright side, it was that it shined light on parts of the barn that hadn't been exposed for more than a century and a half.

"I played in this barn when I was a kid and worked in it all my life," Seibert, 52, said. "But I had never really seen the detail of the beams and supports because it was so dark in here. It's really beautiful to see how this thing was put together, the workmanship."

According to family history, Seibert said the barn, which is built into the side of a hill with stables beneath it, was made from old growth native oak trees that were cut and shaped by hand. The beams inside still show tool marks from their construction, as do wooden secondary supports, some 27 or 28 feet long, that were made from single oak trees. The foundation of the building is 22 inches thick and made from sandstone and limestone quarried in Waterloo and shipped about 35 miles to the construction site in ox carts.

The building is on the national register of historic places.

"In many cases, barns aren't needed anymore and they are allowed to decay," Pratt said. "But this one has always been in use and has been maintained, so it's in pretty good shape internally."

Pratt said he hopes to return the barn to something closer to its original look, which can be seen in a drawing in the 1874 St. Clair County Atlas that shows it from the stable side as a horse-drawn wagon passes by. In the background is the vintage farmhouse where Seibert and his family live.

The piece by piece reconstruction is being done with wood salvaged from a couple of period correct barns -- one in the Belleville area and the other near Red Bud -- that were too far gone to be saved. When it's done, Pratt hopes to make the barn look as much as possible like it did right after it was built.

"We're going to clean it up a little bit around the edges and make it stronger than it was prior to the storm," Pratt said. "But we want it to look like it did right after it was built."

Seibert declined to say how much the barn restoration cost.

"The things that we're doing to the barn should take care of it well past its 200th birthday," Seibert said. "After that, I have done my job and it is the next generation's problem."