Preservation New Jersey's Heritage Partnership
Belles Barn Workshop, Knowlton, New Jersey
By Hal Bromm
A Barn Preservation Workshop,
co-sponsored by the Knowlton Township Historic Commission and the Heritage Partnership, was held on a picture-perfect
early June morning at historic Belles
Barn in Knowlton.
Noted barn expert Elric Endersby, co-
owner of the New Jersey Barn Company
and co-author of several books on
historic barns, conducted the workshop
with wit, enthusiasm and much shared
wisdom. In the course of his work saving,
dismantling, and re-assembling historic
structures, Mr. Endersby has measured
and made drawings of hundreds of
New Jersey barns and agricultural
outbuildings.
Knowlton’s June 4th workshop,
organized to assist preservationists on
properly measuring and documenting
historic barns and other agricultural
outbuildings, included discussion of
transcribing measurements to make
architectural drawings for archival use.
Such work provides a valuable tool in
recording structures that have outlived
their intended use and are being lost
across the state and nation at an alarming
rate. Endersby commented on the
changes in farming that while essentially
making haylofts obsolete, have also seen
an increase in the value of historic barns
for adaptive reuse as studios, homes, and
other structures.
Attendees included barn owners, history
buffs and members of historic groups
who worked with Endersby “hands-on”
using clipboards, measuring tapes and
flashlights to explore the barn and record
its structural elements, windows, doors,
hayloft and unusual cupola. Following
an active morning session, the group was
treated to a delicious lunch organized
by Historic Commission member Karin
Strom at the nearby farm of Ken Kroll
and David Johnstone.
Belles Barn, located at on land now owned
by the state of NJ and managed by the Dept of Fish and Wildlife. [It was previously featured on Knowlton’s annual Historic Barn Tour.] The Knowlton Township Historic Commission has been working to find an adaptive use for the barn and surrounding land that will put The structure into active service to prevent what is feared to be its slow decline and eventual loss. Preliminary discussions with Sister Miriam MacGillis of Genesis Farm have begun on the possible raising of heirloom livestock at
the site.
According to Knowlton’s Historic
Commission chair, Hal Bromm, concern for the survival of Belles’ Barn led historian and commission adviser Dennis Bertland to suggest the workshop. Preservation New Jersey staff member Swathy Keshavamurthy worked to organize a collaborative effort with the Heritage Partnership. Bromm feels that “focusing attention on historic barns helps remind us that these proud utilitarian structures reflect the area’s important agricultural history, much of which has already been lost through neglect”.
It is widely known that the state agencies managing these lands are unable to fund the stabilization or repair of existing historic resources. “Knowlton Township and their surrounding rural agricultural communities
In northwestern Warren County have worked aggressively to preserve farmland, often without the important cooperation and support necessary to protect the farm structures and farming homestead environments that affect the proud heritage of generations-long agricultural use of the land”.
Special thanks to Elric Endersby for giving so generously of his time and to Historic members Jon Bellis, Karen Lund, Carl Shuster, Karin Strom, and Emiliy Dobosh for making the event possible.
This article was re-published with the expressed permission of
"Preservation New Jersey"
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Internet Links on Historic Preservation
http://nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com
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http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/
Knowlton Township Historic Commission
Contact us at :
S628 Route 94
Columbia, New Jersey 07832
Tel: 908.496.4816 Fax: 908.496.8144
Email: info@historicknowlton.org
Copyright © 2007