Dauphin County’s Star Barn will become Lebanon County’s treasure
Dauphin County’s The Star Barn will someday find a new home in Lebanon County. Background posts: Barn owner: ‘You cannot stay stressed here for long’ and Horn Farm: ‘A very special living history memorial to those hardy ancestors’ and Gettysburg-area National Register homestead gives snapshot of pressures facing farms.
Last time we checked in on The Star Barn, preservationists were not ready to release the site of its new home.
Indeed, the York Daily Record/Sunday News urged its relocation to the Horn Farm, a budding agricultural museum in Hellam Township.
Too bad it’s not coming to York County.
But at least it’s not going to fall down.
According to the York Weekly Record, the 1872 barn that many folks see on their way to Harrisburg International Airport is slated to be relocated to a Lebanon County site… .
Here’s the Weekly Record’s short story (1/3/09), part of a larger spread on area barns:
Inside the “Star Barn,” Dauphin County.
The Star Barn, in Lower Swatara Township, Dauphin County, is billed as “one of the most famous, recognizable, and historic barns in North America.”
It was built in 1872, and is listed as a national landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
Its unique design and the large stars have made it a popular subject for photographs and paintings and the concern of Preservation Pennsylvania and similar groups who have made efforts to save it.
Agrarian Country, a nonprofit organization, announced last year that it will move The Star Barn to a new location, where it will be part of an agriculture education and exhibition center that will include The Star Barn art gallery and museum.
According to the Web site www.thestarbarn.com, the plan is for John High, who is known as the “Barn Saver,” to dismantle the barn and other outbuildings for relocation to its new site near Grantville in Lebanon County.
More information on the project and how you can get involved, as well as the history and photographs of The Star Barn, are available at the above Web site.
Barn photos courtesy of The Patriot-News
