Down goes the barn

One hundred twenty-six years of history went down in a cloud of dust last week in Hartley.

The old horse barn at the historic Patch-Eeten House on First Street Southeast was torn down June 11. An excavator operated by Dave Hobson took around an hour to demolish the structure, which had deteriorated beyond repair thanks to a weakening foundation and other issues.

"It was in really bad shape. You could walk in there and stick your hand right through the wall," said Howard Borchard, a local historian with vast knowledge of the Patch-Eeten property. "It was leaning pretty bad, but I think everything is entitled to lean after 126 years."

According to Borchard, the horse barn was built by J.W. Walters in 1894 two years before the house. It originally had large, sliding wooden doors along the south side, which were eventually replaced by fiberglass garage doors. Horses were also replaced with motor vehicles, but inside you could still see evidence that the structure once housed animals instead of machines.

"It was quite the barn in its time," said Borchard.

The hole left on the property will be short lived. The Hartley Historical Society, which oversees the Patch-Eeten House, plans to rebuild the barn "as close to historically accurate as is financially possible," according to advisory board Chair Connie Olhausen.

The estimate for the new barn, along with deconstruction of the old one, is approximately $95,000. Ron Hengeveld and Jeremy Pearson will complete a majority of the work.

"People may wonder why the old barn was not restored, but the foundation just would not support it," Olhausen said. "It was leaning, and it was also encroaching on a large transformer near it. The city had been warned it wasn't a good situation."

Completion of the new barn is slated for later this year. More than half of the tab will be covered by a donation from the Irene Voss estate. The rest will be paid for by existing Hartley Historical Society funds and pending donations, according to City Administrator Erica Haack.

Voss, a Hartley native, died at the age of 98 on Nov. 3, 2017 and subsequently gifted several local organizations monetary contributions. Other local benefactors included the United Methodist Church, American Legion Post #288 and the Pleasant View Cemetery Chapel Committee.

Borchard looked forward to cutting the ribbon on the new structure.

"It'll be nice when we get all done back the way it was," he said. "Hopefully it'll come out looking just great."