photo by: Tatum Goetting

Eric Jackson, owner of the Thomas McQuillan Farmstead, stands in front of the historic barn on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

Baldwin City resident Eric Jackson recently inherited a barn that has been in his family since the late 1800s, and, thanks to a Douglas County organization, he was able to hire someone to determine whether the bequest was worth saving.

“It was a good way to determine whether or not to keep the barn,” Jackson said of the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council’s barn assessment grant program. “I was able to acquire professional restoration advice specific to the timber frames and stem foundation.”

According to the council, the historic barn assessment program allows the organization to pay for professional evaluation so that the barn owner isn’t burdened with that cost.

The professional assessment can determine what condition a barn is in and suggest a remedy for whatever problems are found, said Heritage Conservation Council Chair Amy Van de Riet.

The council partnered with the Kansas Barn Alliance the first year of the program. It also applied for a Kansas Historic Preservation Fund grant, which was provided by the State Historic Preservation Office to pay for the assessment program.

Van de Riet said the assessments, done by barn reclaimer Tom Kennedy, would allow barn owners to figure out what changes they can make themselves and what changes they would need to hire a professional for.

“For the most part, the barn owners really love their barns,” Van de Riet said. “They just want to know how to preserve them, and that’s the goal of this program — to give them that first step of knowledge.”

In order to get the Historic Barn Assessment Grant, the barns have to be in Douglas County, and they have to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

Van de Riet said most barns in the program are personal properties, like family estates and farmsteads, that have been in a family for generations.

Jackson found out about the barn program through relatives. His project is called the Thomas McQuillan Farmstead, and he received $45,000 from the 2021 Rural Preservation Grant.

The original property was 160 acres and was acquired by Thomas McQuillan in 1860. The entire 160 acres have remained within the original family ever since.

“The property’s been in my family for five generations,” Jackson said. “It was actually a territory that was deeded to my great, great, great, great, great-grandparents.”

photo by: Contributed

The interior of Baldwin City resident Eric Jackson’s barn, which has been in his family’s possession for many generations.

The latest addition to the farmhouse was completed in 1950. Around that time, the farm transitioned from dairy herd to beef cattle and horses. Crops were reduced to pasture and hay fields.

“I think it’s good to read about historic places,” Jackson said. “They’re good, physical reminders of what came before us. They act as educational tools.”

The other Douglas County property that was awarded the 2021 Kansas Rural Preservation Grant was the Elmwood Stock Farm Barn. Barn owner Robert Elder was also provided help through the Historic Barn Assessment program.

Elder said he found out about the assessment program through an email that the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council sent. Elder applied for the assessment in late 2019.

“We were hoping that the structural assessment would help us prioritize the needs of the barn,” Elder said. “Although we had the barn examined ourselves, we felt that having a consultant examine the barn would help provide us with additional insight.”

The Elmwood Stock Farm was built around 1900, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and sits on a 160-acre farm in Baldwin City. The structure was originally built as a dairy barn, and it has a milking parlor and milk-processing room.

Elder’s family purchased the property in 1988 and used the barn until 2005, when Elder’s father had retired from farming.

Elder said the assessment helped him understand what the barn needed before applying for the 2021 Kansas Rural Preservation Grant. The property’s grant amounted to $33,448.

“The barn is in disrepair and needs immediate attention,” Elder said. “We have secured a Kansas Rural Preservation Grant, but we are having great difficulty finding a contractor.”

Despite their struggle to find a contractor, Elder said the structural assessment was a step in the right direction to preserving the barn.

“The milking parlor and milk processing rooms are still intact,” Elder said. “Despite its condition, the barn retains good historical integrity.”

The Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council’s goal is to preserve as many historic barns as possible, Van de Riet said.

“We have this organization that’s really rooting for [barn owners],” Van de Riet said. “We really do try to give them as much support as we can.”

photo by: Tatum Goetting

The historic barn at the Elmwood Stock Farm is pictured Wednesday, June 15, 2022.