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Barn-Raising Demonstration

Friday & Saturday—
The raising of a barn frame

Come over to the barn-raising site by the herb garden area and see the way early homesteaders handcrafted barns from logs felled from the virgin forest using a broadax, adz and handsaw. On Friday and Saturday we'll assemble and raise the wall beams of an eighteenth-century barn. Demonstrations at the site will include hewing beams by hand and cutting mortise-and-tenon joints.

Annual Benefit Auction

Saturday evening – The auction of a historic barn frame

On Saturday, November 29, we will auction off the Greenvile Barn frame by sealed bid to the highest bidder* with all proceeds going to the Center for Essential Education.

The Greenville Barn

• Originally from the historic Catskill Mountains of New York circa 1840

• Measures 26 feet by 38 feet

• Hand-hewn hemlock timbers

• Minimum Bid: $26,000

• Barn frame sale price includes all posts, beams and roof rafters and standing the timber frame on your foundation.

• Barn Frame Dimensional Drawings :
   • 1056 3D Frame.pdf
   • 1056Bent.pdf
   • 1056Overhead.pdf
   • BraswellLeftElev.pdf

*Bids may be submitted any time prior to 6:00 P.M. Saturday, November 29, after which time all bids will be opened and the winner announced. All bids and inquiries may be directed to Kevin Durkin in care of Heritage Barns at 608 Dry Creek Road in Waco, Texas, 76705—or call (800) 841-6351. Bids may be submitted at the Fair, by mail or via e-mail to kevindurkin@heritagebarns.com. During the Fair, for information about the barn frame or the bidding, please ask for Kevin Durkin in the barn-raising area.

Historic Buildings Tour

On Friday and Saturday afternoons, join us at 4:30 for a walking tour of seven restored buildings at Brazos de Dios.

Over the years, we have moved these eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings from various parts of the United States and rebuilt them at our farm, not out of a desire to live in the past, but to preserve the good things of the past for the present and the future. For details about the buildings on our historic walking tour available throughout the year, click here.

On the tour you'll see:

The Hope Farm Barn

A Dutch barn originally built in the 1820's in New Jersey

The Teeter Mill

A 1760's mill with a gambrel roof originally built in northwestern New Jersey

The Homestead Cabin

A two-story log cabin from Missouri built circa 1830

The LaRue Barn

A timber-frame barn built about 1760 in the northern New Jersey town of Mahwah, close to the New York state border

The Middleburg Palatine House

An early American house built about 1750 in the Schoharie Valley of New York state

The Stone Arabia Smokehouse

The smallest of our restored buildings, originally from the Mohawk River valley of New York state, built circa 1860

The Leeway Barn

This large barn came from Ohio and was built about 1870 from oak and chestnut timbers.