This barn is part of a working Christmas tree farm, Merrywood Farm.
The barn and adjacent buildings hold a large collection of farm and dairy machinery and memorabilia including everything from old cream separators to a stuffed cougar. The grounds are open to the public during the winter season.
Unfortunately, I was having some issues with my lens hood during this trip and some of the pictures are cropped a bit more closely than I would like due to vignetting.
I received the following information from the current barn owners:
“We know lots of the history on our barn and love to share. It was built by my husband’s great-grandfather, Frederick Heilman, in 1907, with the help of a barn-raising crew of relatives and neighbors. Frederick’s daughter little Dorothea was five-years-old at the time and remembered the day vividly when she shared the story with us. The lumber came from timber here on our farm – all logged and hauled up the hill with horses or mules.
Frederick died during during the Depression and his wife Martha apparently let the farm go back to the bank. It changed owners multiple times over the span of 50 years, before we purchased it in 1986. It was only then that we learned of the family history from Dorothea Heilman Keyser, my husband’s grandmother, (then in her eighties) who still lived next door on a piece of land that was split off the original 100 acres upon her marriage. She then produced numerous historic photos and shared her memories of her childhood there. We were thrilled to have the farm back in the family and began the process of remodeling the house and restoring the barn.
The barn now houses a museum of antique farming and logging equipment from around the area.”
Resources: