PINE GROVE - Some barns of note in Schuylkill County were visited by members of a historic state organization on Saturday.
Members from the Historic Barn and Farm Foundation, an organization meant to bring attention to the importance of barns in the state, visited about 11 in the Pine Grove area. The selected barns were chosen at random when they were visited by Judy Lengle, a member of the group who is also a member of the Pine Grove Historical Society. Lengle took pictures of 36 barns and met with their owners and forwarded the information to the foundation.
Ken Sandri, executive director of the foundation and preservation and resources manager at Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, chose the visited sites in the Pine Grove area, Lengle said.
Stopping at barns along Panther Valley Road, Greg Huber, author of "New World Dutch Barn" and a member of the organization, said the red colored barn was unique. "It's very crude," he said of the construction. He estimated the barn was built about 1840. "It could be later, it could be earlier," he said.
Jared Poltson, HGTV's 2011 "All-American Handyman," appreciated the visit by the group.
"I thought it was great. I was always curious to know the history," he said while standing inside the barn he uses often.
At another site at 31 Roedersville Road, Huber admired a barn built with chestnut wood. Jonathan Flynn is the owner.
"This is all chestnut. It's a thing of beauty," Huber said of the barn that was about 30 by 15 feet. "This is very rare. In most areas you don't see chestnut. You just have pine."
He speculated that the wood might have been easily available and inexpensive. Near the top of the barn on one side, yellow and other colors could be seen because of the weather.
"It's a little beat up. It's a 150-year-old barn," he said.
Also along for the tour was author Robert F. Ensminger, Bethlehem. He wrote he book "The Pennsylvania Barn."
Looking inside of another barn on the property, Sandri said he thought the barn was "from the Civil War era."
Pine wood was used in construction of the barn, he said. He estimated the barn was built "after 1870" because of the condition of the wood and the cuts used.
The purpose of the Historic Barn and Farm Foundation is to "document as many historic barns as we can," he said.
Spaces near the roof line of the barn permitted birds to enter to take care of vermin, those in attendance said. Three such designs were visible on one side as well as one on another side of the barn.
Barns were built for what the farmer needed, Sandri said.
Where deviations occur, it is because of a specified reason, he said.
"We look at our house and what design we want. The barn is all about being practical for the owner," Sandri said.