Historic barn moving to new location
Lisa Scarmazzi looks one last time at the barn Monday, before it is torn down and rebuilt in Butler.
The exterior of the McClane barn in Chartiers Township
This photo shows the exterior of the McClane barn in Chartiers Township, owned by Paul and Lisa Scarmazzi. Soon, it will be torn down and rebuilt in Butler.
Paul and Lisa Scarmazzi searched the country to find a new home for an historic barn on their Chartiers Township property.
Much to their surprise, they found it less than 50 miles away, in Allegheny County.
The barn, built around 1880 on the former McClane Farm near the Arden Fairgrounds, is being disassembled and re-assembled on a working farm in Gibsonia.
The Scarmazzis, owners of Hawthorne Partners Inc., an award-winning developer that has built Epcon communities including the Villas at Arden Mills, purchased the property in 2005 and plan to develop it eventually, but they wanted to spare the barn from demolition.
“We knew eventually the barn was going to have to come down,” said Lisa. “Although we build new construction, Paul and I both have such an appreciation for the workmanship and the detail and the history of these old buildings, and we just could not see it being ripped down.”
Lisa spent more than a month searching for someone who who preserve the 40-foot by 50-foot barn. She contacted barn restoration companies across the country, but the companies that contacted her wanted to use the barn for reclaimed wood.
That’s where Justin Galloway came in.
Galloway, a McGuffey High School graduate who owns Justin M. Galloway Construction and Reclamation, responded to an ad Lisa put on Craigslist and said he knew someone who might be interested in taking the barn.
“A friend of mine has the same affinity for barn wood that I do and he was going to have a barn built anyway, so I sold him on the idea,” said Galloway. “This is a labor of love.”
The barn will be reassembled near a 15,000-square-foot timber home the owner has built on the property.
It will take Galloway and a crew of 15 about a month to disassemble and transport the barn. Galloway marks each timber with a steel tag and matches up the tags when the barn is reassembled.
Galloway marveled at the good condition of the barn’s interior. The building is still square and plumb after more than 130 years, and the beams are intact and well-preserved, he said.
The barn includes 22 stables that once housed horses that raced at The Meadows. Also on the property are two outbuildings that Galloway will dismantle, and a glazed tile silo that cannot be transported.
Before Galloway and his crew arrived, the Scarmazzis were hard at work removing the contents of the barn, which included trunks that contained tack and several papers and documents related to the operation of the farm.
The Scarmazzis donated the barn to its new owner, but Galloway said it will cost almost three times as much for the owner to rebuild it. The foundation has already been poured for the barn, so Galloway estimates it will take another two months to reassemble the structure.
The Washington County Historical Society recently visited the barn and provided the Scarmazzis with some history of the farm.
“We are thrilled the barn will live on and be preserved,” said Lisa. “It’s such a piece of history.”