Published: March 20, 2009 01:56 pm      

Logs from Georgetown barn to be used for home addition

Something new, something old

The old logs which have held Ron Meriwether’s barn in place for more than a century have withstood the test of time. And now, those logs, which date back to the 1800s, will be part of something new.

The barn, which sits along Henriott Road in Georgetown, was damaged during the windstorm last September. So when Meriwether decided it was no longer worth saving, he decided to sell it.

“It was no longer used and not in very good shape,” he said. “I would have had to spend some money to make repairs. I decided the best thing to do was to make a little money out of it and not let it fall down. I didn’t really want to get up on the roof because there were some weak spots.”

The old logs inside the barn are being removed by Michael Bailey and his crew of Bailey Construction and will be used to build a new addition on a home in New Salisbury. Bailey said it has been a meticulous job taking the barn down, piece by piece. But he said the lumber inside was worth saving. He said he has been doing this sort of thing for eight years and has built 23 log cabins.

“Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to put back together,” Bailey said of old barns and homes. “But you can preserve the timbers by using them in something else.”

Meriwether said his parents bought the 147-acre farm and the barn in 1958. While the land remains in his family’s possession, the logs and lumber inside the barn will now have a new home.

“It’s a good way to preserve the old barn,” he said.