- Cables now hold the Hartwood barn upright. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

Hartwood barn is perpendicular again TO THE RESCUE HAVE CABLES, WILL TRAVEL THE FIRST STEP

Syracuse company comes to leaning Hartwood barn's rescue

Date published: 2/16/2007

BY RICHARD AMRHINE

THE OLD RED barn's precise history is uncertain, but one thing was for sure: Someday, a strong gust of wind would come through Hartwood and that would be the end of it.

For Connie Hilker, that scenario was unacceptable. Her solution was to contact Woodford Bros. Inc., a Syracuse, N.Y. , company that specializes in stabilizing and renovating old barns and other structures. A crew has spent the past week in Hartwood.

Hilker has what might be called an urge to preserve. Since late 2002, she and her husband, Stephen, have been working to restore 335 Hartwood Road, a rare Southern example of Gothic Revival architecture two miles off U.S. 17. The house dates to 1848. Their efforts were featured on this page about a year ago.

Known as Hartwood Manor, the property includes an old hay barn that measures roughly 66 feet by 21 feet. Connie Hilker said her research indicates the original barn was built in the late 1890s. An addition that tripled the size of the barn was probably built between 1910 and 1920.

What to do about the barn has weighed on Hilker for years. Last fall, storms packing high winds caused it to lean a little more. She couldn't find anyone locally to help, so she turned to an "old house" chat group on the Internet and learned about Woodford Bros. Then she thought her barn experience, and the need to preserve these rapidly disappearing structures, might make a good feature story.

"Ours isn't a masterpiece Amish-style post-and-beam structure with historic significance," she said. "It's just a plain old hay barn. But it's our hay barn, and we're going to do what we can to preserve it."

Hilker, who knows from experience that contractors don't always show up when they say they will, had a glowing report on her initial contacts with Woodford Bros. First, she would need to download a Ballpark Estimate Kit from the company's Web site, woodfordbros .com. The kit explains how to gather the necessary information.

On a Wednesday, she mailed the information in. Just two days later, she was e-mailed an estimate and a description of what the company would do. She accepted the offer, and on the following Wednesday, just a week after mailing the kit, the on-site evaluator was in Hartwood.

Here is a summary of Ballpark Estimate Kit instructions: Gather needed supplies (tape measure, graph paper, etc.). Prepare a sketch of your building(s). Make a rough draft with dimensions. Refine the rough draft to a final draft. Take photographs and mark their locations on your final draft. Make notes describing the problems shown in your photos. Send in your completed materials. Call or e-mail with any questions.

Date published: 2/16/2007