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Iowa barn being dismantled, piece by piece, to be reassembled in an effort to save a ‘monument to agriculture’
A Dallas County couple wanted to add a barn to their property, and a Cerro Gordo County family was looking for a way to save their barn
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MASON CITY — A "monument to agriculture,” in danger of falling apart and disappearing forever, is being dismantled by Amish craftsmen with plans to resurrect it in Dallas County.
Jerry and Kathy Stephens own a farm just south of Mason City. On their property stands a majestic old barn — believed to have been built in the 1860s — with good bones but a failing foundation. The couple feared the otherwise-sturdy structure might not be long for this earth.
"It has structural damage in the back," said Kathy Stephens. "With the winds we've had this summer, it was to the point that we needed to do something to be wise. We didn't want to send it to the landfill, and we would have to, because we can't bury anything on this property due to limestone.“
"I remember sitting on those stairs as a little kid," Kathy Stephens said, gesturing toward the barn. "Dad had sheep, and they'd shear the sheep under there. There's a lot of memories for me in that barn. This was meant to be."
Angie Clay Nowysz owns a Dallas County farm with her husband, Bill. She knew it needed something extra to make it feel like home. She placed an ad looking for sound barns that were unwanted in the Farm Bureau publication The Statesman. Through a bit of serendipity, the Stephenses answered.
Clay Nowysz had similarly fond memories of a barn from her childhood.
"I grew up in Franklin County," said. "My family owned a farm there for over 165 years, and we recently lost it all, sold it. On that property was a barn just like this, but bigger. It's almost the same barn."
Clay Nowysz had arranged to have the barn from her parents' property moved to Adel, but in an unexpected event, the barn caught fire and burned on the night of her mother's birthday in 2009.
Over the next few years, Clay Nowysz cared for her parents as they developed Alzheimer's and eventually died. Her nostalgia for afternoons spent watching dust play in the streams of light inside her beloved barn only increased.
"I miss all of that. And, I thought, the barns of Iowa are going away," Clay Nowysz said. "There are thousands every year leaving our landscape, and so I decided, 'I'm going to save this barn before I die’.“
But moving a barn is no small task. The Cerro Gordo County barn in question, while in relatively good condition, wouldn't survive a typical house-moving operation.
So it is being dismantled on site at the Stephenses' property by Harwood Construction, an Amish company based out of Fairbank.
"It's a circuitous route," said Kathy Stephens of hiring the Amish contractor. "My husband used to sell real estate, and he reached out to an Amish bishop who steered us in the right direction. Eventually, we got to Harley and Henry and their brother, David Borntrager, who have a construction company with experience in taking these apart to rebuild."
How will the barn be reassembled?
Harley Borntrager said Harwood Construction has experience in all types of buildings. The company has refurbished many barns into homes across the state in addition to the new construction and remodeling work that makes up the bulk of their business.
Amish craftsman are known throughout the Midwest as detailed and hardworking. Bill and Angie Clay Nowysz are counting on their experience with timber frame structures to dismantle the barn and rebuild it on their Adel property.
Timber frame construction is typically associated with German builders of the Middle Ages. That style spread, eventually influencing construction methods including Tudor building. Timber frame construction consists of large, solid timbers joined using fitted cuts and pegs to hold the frame in place.
Timber frame construction can be done using the scribing method — fitting pieces in place to one another by making cuts to join the pieces — or by squaring the joints. In squaring, the pieces are cut to fit together mathematically and can be interchanged. Scribing was the earliest method and was handed down to craftsmen for generations.
"The barn I grew up in had each timber marked with a Roman numeral," Clay Nowysz said, an indication it was constructed using the scribing method. Each piece fit exactly to its counterpart, meaning each joint is unique.
One of the most vital steps of the process is marking each board with an orientation and number before the barn is dismantled. Once moved, it will be a piece-by-number effort to rebuild it.
"I feel strongly about barns in general," added Clay Nowysz. "I just feel like they are stories. They're just full of stories, and I feel like they're a monument to agriculture and farming."
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