LUCAS, Ohio — An April 4, 1993, fire completely consumed the large dairy barn at the Malabar Farm State Park where Pulitzer prize-winning author Louis Bromfield had created a model for sustainable agriculture that gained national attention.
Following Bromfield’s death in 1956 his children gave the farm to a conservation foundation which in 1972 deeded the land to the state. Subsequently, Malabar Farm became a state park in 1976 where she received thousands of visitors every year.
Shortly after the barn fire of ’93, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources decided to build an historically accurate structure to replace the barn using a timber frame. The ODNR contacted Rudy Christian, founding member of the Timber Framers Guild of North America, who put a call out to the guild for workers to help with the barn raising.
The barn raising took place over the Labor Day weekend 25 years ago, with nearly 200 guild members and workers from around the country.
On the 25th anniversary of the barn raising, Malabar Farm Officials and Christian had a workshop to build another, smaller traditional timber frame. At the workshop, they built a Sugar Camp Shed, where traditional maple sugaring could be demonstrated to the public.
Participants finished raising the frame by noon and its siding and roofing was completed a few hours later. All participants signed the frame.
