Star Barn Gets a New Lease on Life

Historic Structure to Anchor Huge Ag Ed Center in Lebanon County

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — One of the region’s most recognizable barns could be moved as early as next year — as part of a potentially massive agricultural education center in Lebanon County.

The Star Barn, which was built in 1872 and is easily recognizable from an adjacent highway because of the unique star design on its gable, will be the centerpiece of a 300-acre proposed agricultural education center just a few hundred yards away from the outer boundaries of Penn National Race Course in East Hanover Township, Lebanon County.

At least that’s the dream of Dr. Robert Barr, a former ag educator, who grew up on a farm and has dreamed of a way to showcase agriculture on a grand scale. He made the announcement Tuesday afternoon at a press conference inside the barn.

“My first love is agriculture and education,” Barr said.

If he has his way, the legendary barn, which is currently in Middletown next to a housing development and busy Rt. 283, would sit on the highest peak of the 300-acre tract of land, easily viewable from an adjoining highway.

Surrounding the barn would be working farms that would showcase up to 30 different types of farming for people to see. Anything from dairy farming to crops, even wine and apiculture would be showcased.

“By the time you bring this thing together, you have a facility that is a very credible ag education project,” he said.

Barr and his non-profit organization, Agrarian Country, bought the site earlier this month. It is zoned agriculture. He bought the barn along with its surrounding buildings and a silo back in December, according to The (Harrisburg) Patriot News.

Along with this initial purchase, Barr said he has entered into tentative verbal agreements to purchase additional lands surrounding the site, raising the total amount of potentially dedicated acres to the project to more than 1,000 acres.

Barr said he purchased the site for several reasons, including the fact that it sits beside a major interstate (I-81) and is already zoned agriculture.

He once thought of moving the barn to his Centre County abode. But given the barn’s significance to the Harrisburg region and the land he needed for the project, he decided to keep it in the area.

“I just woke up one day and got to my senses. This barn represents the area’s rural heritage,” he said.

The Star Barn, which has not been part of a working farm since 1986, is the last remaining Carpenter Gothic barn in the area, of which there were as many as 15 at one point.

John High, owner of The Barn Saver, the company tasked with getting the barn ready for its big move, said the building will be taken apart in pieces, with many of the old beams tagged and colored.

Once the roof is taken apart and the building is braced, a crane will painstakingly move the building off its foundation.

When it is moved to its new “resting place,” as Barr describes it, it will be put back together in a traditional barn raising.

“It’s so great the barn will have a new lease on life,” High said.

The barn will then be refurbished to include a concert hall and what Barr described as a “black box” theater. It’s his hope the barn will host private events year-round.

The project’s future hinges on getting the right permits and funding.
Barr said it will take anywhere between six and nine months to get the right permits.

Along with that, he said it will take at least $3 million to take apart, move and put the barn back together. Most of the funding, he said, will come from private donations and getting to the $3 million mark will determine the project’s timeline.

“As fast as that can occur, that will determine our timeline,” he said, adding it could take until 2010 to get the barn moved.

He said a total of $10 million will have to be raised to get the education center up and running.

Larry Miller, chairman of the East Hanover Township supervisors, said he sees potential issues with traffic, given the project’s close proximity to a casino.

But he’d rather keep the area in agriculture, rather than see homes and businesses built.

“Personally, I think it’s a really great thing for our township,” Miller said.

Robert Kinsley, president of Preservation Pennsylvania, the previous owner of The Star Barn, is pleased to see the barn will be preserved.

“For this to really be saved, it needed a new life, a new use,” Kinsley said. “We all know it had a great past. Now we know it will have a great future.”

Gregory Huber, barn historian who has visited more than 4,000 historic barns in the country, said the Star Barn is the most recognized and celebrated historic barn he has ever seen.

“To know the barn will be saved is an overwhelming feeling,” Huber said.