SHELBY – The timber frame of a 19th-century Wayne County barn has found new life as an addition to a two-story farmhouse just outside of Shelby.
Homeowner Joe Lykins said he purchased the barn, located near Wooster, around three years ago and began the deconstruction process between April and May 2023.
Lykins is the owner of Buckeye Barn Salvage LLC, an Ohio-based company which specializes in the deconstruction and resurrection of historic barns in Ohio and surrounding states.
Beginning to build a dream
When it was time to bring the barn down, Lykins decided to repurpose the timber frame for a project of his own; an addition to his two-story 1870s farmhouse.
“This is the one I kept,” he said. “It kind of fit the size I was looking for. The space is great.”
Lykins said the deconstruction process is hard work. Each board must be brought down, each nail must be pulled out and if it’s being used to build a home, the barnwood must be cleaned.
“Then you have to re-erect it, which is a job in itself,” he said. “It’s a lot of physical work.”
The lumber was loaded onto semi-trucks and traveled from Wayne County to Lykins’ property, where he and Logan Spohn spent several months resurrecting the timber frame.
Spohn is the owner of LS Construction LLC, a construction company based out of Lucas.
Lykins said Spohn built the floor decking, put in the first layer of walls and helped install the roof along with members of the Buckeye Barn Salvage crew.
“He’s (Spohn) been here from the start,” Lykins said. “He’s a good general contractor and he’s a good kid.”
Timber addition featured on Magnolia Network
The addition was recently featured on the season finale of Magnolia Network’s “Restoration Road with Clint Harp,” which aired Dec. 12, 2023.
Harp travels around the United States searching for some of the nation’s oldest structures still standing, examining their history and restoration.
“Restoration Road” can be streamed on the Magnolia Network, discovery+ and Max (formerly known as HBO Max).
Lykins said he had a lot of fun working with Harp and his crew and enjoyed the opportunity to document the barn being saved.
“Clint (Harp) does a show about saving American history,” he said. “That’s what it was about for me.”
Drain says barn dates back to 1830s
During the episode, Harp meets with Shelby resident Christina Drain, who compiled research on the 19th-century barn.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “Every place that you research is a little bit different.”
Drain learned the land on which the barn was located was first purchased from the United States government by James and Thomas Cherry in 1825.
She said James only owned the land for about three years and during that time, he cleared trees from three acres of the total 182-acre property.
“It’s very unlikely that they (Cherrys) built a barn on that three acres, especially a barn of that size,” Drain said. “Three acres just wouldn’t have been big enough.”
In 1828, James Cherry sold 82 acres of the property to Joseph Showalter, who owned the land until his death around 1888.
Drain said the property was then sold at auction and advertised as having “good fences, good house, good barn, a No. 1 orchard, fountain at the house and stockyard.”
Showalter died in his 70s, which is an age Drain, Harp and Lykins all agreed seemed an unlikely stage in life to construct a barn.
Furthermore, the discovery of marriage marks, chiseled markings used in timber frame construction, on the hand-hewn beams contributed to Drain dating the Wayne County barn back to the 1830s.
‘We have to keep that history alive’
Drain said researching for the show sparked her interest and led to participation in a week-long workshop on land and property records at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh.
“It (workshop) just really upped my game,” she said. “There was so much more that I was able to find and places that I knew where to go.”
Harp’s passion to highlight history throughout each episode of “Restoration Road” is something Drain said she appreciates.
“We have to keep that history alive,” she said. “I’m so glad that Joe (Lykins) does that. His heart is in it.”
Preserving pieces of history
Lykins said it’s important to preserve the barns because they were critical structures in America’s history.
“The barns were so important back when they were built. They were built before the homes in most cases,” he said. “If you didn’t have animals, you didn’t survive. So if it weren’t for these old barns, we wouldn’t be here.”
“They (barns) should be saved for the generations below us to enjoy and see.”
Lykins said a big inspiration behind the project was his grandchildren and he looks forward to spending time with them in the new living space for years to come.
Photos from the deconstruction and repurposing of a timber framed 19th century barn, originally located just outside of Wooster. Photos provided by Joe Lykins.
