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BUHL, Idaho (AP) — A retired Twins Fall banker is on a mission to save a historic Idaho barn that was nearly destroyed by strong winds last winter.
The century-old dairy barn was built by German-Russian immigrant Henry Schick, and its onion-domed cupolas were a landmark southeast of Buhl. Tom Gilbertson instantly fell in love with the structure when he saw it while inspecting agricultural loan properties 10 years ago, reported The Times-News (http://bit.ly/20WNIIg).
The barn was never upgraded from its original 1914 design and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. But last year, a gust of wind tore off a corner of the barn's roof and toppled one of its cupolas.
"My heart dropped when I saw it," Gilbertson said. "It made me sick."
Now, he's determined to save it and is hoping to make it a living museum and a display of early Idaho farm life.
Henry Schick played a key role in Idaho's early dairy industry: Along with Tillamook, Oregon, dairyman Gustave Kunze, he built the largest dairy barn in Idaho. Kunze had visited the Buhl area in 1910 and decided to stay.
Several of Kunze's fellow Tillamook dairymen followed him to Buhl. Many of their barns were built, at least in part, by Schick.
They're rectangular structures with a double-sloped roof and distinctive concrete walls.
There were already many styles of barns in south-central Idaho at that time, but the Kunze barn was the first built in the area specifically for dairy. That was the beginning of a significant architectural transition, according to historical architect Fred Walters, who studies the influence of technology on Idaho's agricultural buildings.
There was a rapid succession of roof styles between 1912 and 1914 so dairymen had more and more space to store hay. In particular, Kunze's barn was enormous -- big enough to house, feed and milk 100 cows. It could store 200 tons of hay and was supported by 12 heavy, 25-foot high posts.
But as Schick began to design barns for other dairymen, he made adaptions. His later barns made a dramatic departure from the earlier ones: They were narrower but proportionately taller, with upward-stretched gambrel roofs that flared at the eaves.
Those roofs feature unique cupolas that created a striking appearance, even from a distance -- and stole Gilbertson's heart almost a century later.
The retired banker formed a nonprofit group, the Historic Barn Society of the Magic Valley, in 2013. Schick's three heirs split off the barn and an acre of the farm from his property and donated it to the group. Gilbertson's group had started restoring the barn before it was damaged last year.
The concrete walls remain solid, but the wind took a chunk of the barn's southwest corner is gone and the remaining timber is tottering at 38 feet.
"Tom (Gilbertson) has a huge job ahead of him," said Walters, the historical architect, who visited the barn before the Christmas Even windstorm last year. He said restoring it won't be impossible, but expensive. The nonprofit will have to hire a contract because the major work can't be done by volunteers.
Gilbertson isn't giving up, though.
"I'm not getting frustrated," he said, "but I'm discouraged that it will take more time now."
"There's still a lot of mystery about the barn, and I never get tired of discovering more things about it," added Gilbertson. "I wish Schick were still here."
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Information from: The Times-News, http://www.magicvalley.com
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