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Imagine a place where dairy cows used to gather every day to eat and deliver milk. Now try to imagine sitting down there for a fancy dinner or even a wedding!
That's the vision of some people in Draper who've launched an unusual preservation effort.
For weeks, bulldozers have been clearing a site for the proposed Rendezvous shopping center. But they're leaving one building unscathed. Developer Jaren Davis said, "We'll do everything around the barn and leave the barn standing."
It's the old Day family dairy barn. We told you about it three years ago. The Day family shut down the dairy and moved it to Utah County.
Family spokeswoman LaRayne Day said, "This barn was built in 1920 by Elias John Day."
She remembers award-winning cows, a family livelihood and a rich history Draper is in danger of forgetting. "I mean, it wasn't subdivisions. It wasn't big stores. It was agriculture," she said.
A partnership of preservationists proposes to move the barn to city property.
Todd Shoemaker, chairman of the Draper Historic Preservation Commission, said, "So just to have one remnant of one barn would bring back a story that we could tell on that property."
The barn isn't worth a lot in dollars. The people who are trying to save it bought it in an auction for $900. But now they're trying to raise money to move it and fix it up.
LaRayne Day said, "I think of cowboy poetry, maybe barn dances, something like that going on there."
The developer backed off to give them a chance to raise the money. Davis said, "I obliged because I love their passion, feel their desire to maintain history and want to be part of that."
Shoemaker said, "We can use it for banquets, even weddings, parties, company parties. People would be able to brag that they got married in a dairy barn.
The cost of preserving history is about $75,000. The fundraising effort has to move swiftly. The city of Draper has put a deadline of March on the proposed move.
If you want to learn more, go to the related link on this page.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
