Saving an American Treasure: The Farm Barn

Since 1890, when the last shingle was secured and wood trim painted, the Farm Barn has been the nerve center of Shelburne Farms. It has been home to, and seen so much. And through all the years, it has been the breathtaking building that first welcomes people to this farm. 

Now, thanks to a recently awarded Save America’s Treasures grant, Shelburne Farms will be able to restore a piece of the barn that has been much-weathered by time—its historic courtyard walls.  

The $500,000, subject to a dollar-for-dollar public match, will help Shelburne Farms’ signature barn continue to safely welcome people to our learning campus and the many education programs that begin at its doors. 

The Farm Barn is one of the original four principal buildings on the farm, all designed by Robert H. Robertson. It helped earn Shelburne Farms recognition as a National Historic Landmark District in 2001 (it’s a “contributing structure” to that designation). The Breeding Barn and Coach Barn were also contributing structures, and both have also received Save America’s Treasures Grants in recent years. 

At the turn of the 20th century, this barn was farming central. Farmworkers cared for teams of mules here, loaded hay in the mows, cleaned harnesses and tack, repaired metal wagon parts, painted, built, and more. And in its corner offices, staff balanced ledgers, placed orders, kept records, and planned.

Today, the Farm Barn is equally busy–in a different way. In the early 1990s, generous donors helped transform the declining building into an education and administrative center for the nonprofit. Now within its walls and fields, people of all ages can learn about the role of farming in their lives and ponder the food systems of the future. Depending on the day or season, they can taste cheddar, hand-milk a cow, craft a garden pizza, walk a sheep, picnic… the list goes on.

Small wonder the Farm Barn is getting a bit of the TLC it now needs, specifically on its courtyard walls.

Although the barn’s historic courtyard walls define one of the most public places at the farm, they weren’t designed in the 1890s to accommodate the pedestrians who now regularly pass through them. That’s permanently changing with this grant. 

And the walls, made of locally quarried redstone, need work. A lot of the mortar has failed, leaving open joints where water has been entering and compromising the walls. Some large wall stones have fallen out; other areas have collapsed completely. 

The grant will allow us to rebuild, repoint, and repair the walls and build clearer pedestrian passages through the gates. 

“We applaud Shelburne Farms for the tireless efforts to ensure its preservation and accessibility to the public,” said Laura Trieschmann, Vermont’s State Historic Preservation Officer. We are excited to continue doing just that when work on the Farm Barn begins, planned for in spring 2025. 

Farm Barn renovations are a component of the Campaign for Shelburne Farms.  We are grateful to everyone who has supported this transformational project to date, and we invite you to learn more and support the Campaign. 

The Save America's Treasures grant is from the Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. It is a dollar-for-dollar matching grant that requires Shelburne Farms to secure an additional $500,000 in private charitable investment.