Good News for Iowa Barn
By Gwendolyn Purdom | Online Only | Jan. 20, 2011
This month, residents of West Des Moines, Iowa, took to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in droves this to oppose the city school district's idea to demolish a 1930s dairy barn as part of a high-school expansion project.
Barn supporters received good news yesterday, when the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office determined that the Maplenol Dairy Barn is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. "Because of its good condition and its high level of integrity, we believe it is feasible to rehabilitate the barn," Jerome Thompson, state historic preservation officer, wrote in a Jan. 19 letter to the West Des Moines Community Schools, which owns the Maplenol Barn.
Although the agency's determination cannot prevent the school district from demolishing the barn, the move opens up many grant possibilities for renovation.
The 2,200-square-foot clay-tile barn was once part of the former Maplenol Dairy. The original 1880s structure burned down in the 1930s and was rebuilt in the same decade.
On Jan. 3, when Holly Peterson read in the Des Moines Register that the city of West Des Moines had issued a demolition permit for the barn, she turned to Facebook. Within 24 hours, the Facebook group Save the Maplenol Dairy Barn at Valley High School that Peterson formed had more than 400 members; within a week, more than 1,800 people had affiliated themselves with the group. More than 850 people have signed a petition in favor of saving the barn.
"I thought that if people knew about it they would be upset, so I wasn't really surprised," Peterson says. "I was surprised at how fast it happened."
Community members voiced their concerns about the threat to the barn at an already-scheduled school board meeting Jan. 10. During the two-hour meeting, most speakers were in support of preserving the barn, according to the school district's director of school-community relations and school district secretary Elaine Watkins-Miller.
"The purpose of the meeting was just to get that input, and now [the school district is] reviewing that input and looking at what might be the next step," Watkins-Miller says. "So no position has been made."
Watkins-Miller says the school district began reaching out to the community more than a year ago to find a potential buyer for the barn, meeting with interested individuals, and eventually placing an advertisement in the Des Moines Register, but has received no offers. The $60 million Valley High School expansion project is set to begin in March, but no definite demolition date has been set for the barn, Watkins-Miller says. If the demolition, expected to cost around $28,000, moves forward, the barn site would be used as green space for physical fitness and athletic activities, she says.
At last week's meeting, residents suggested alternatives to demolition, including incorporating the building into the school's expansion plan or moving the barn to another location. (West Des Moines Community Schools once relocated a historic one-room school house.) The cost of bringing the barn up to health and safety codes for use by Valley High students would be substantial, Watkins-Miller says. Moving the barn would be the school board's preference, she says, but would also present obstacles.
"We've certainly done this [relocation] in the past, and we are aware of the possibilities," Watkins-Miller says. But "the barn just doesn't provide the same opportunity because of its structure and condition. I think it's important for people to know we understand."
Yesterday, in response to community concerns, the school district posted three options for the barn on its website that includes detailed steps the district will take to either keep the building in its current location, move the barn to another location, or tear it down. The options will go before the Board of Education for review or approval at its regular meeting on Jan. 24. Among other deadlines, the document states that if demolition plans move forward, the barn could be razed "on or after May 2, 2011."
Though Preservation Iowa has yet to be directly involved in the Maplenol Barn debate, board member Michael Wagler says the nonprofit would encourage the school district to consider reusing the building as part of its expansion.
"The barn itself is one of the last remaining elements of West Des Moines' rural heritage," Wagler says.
Sarah Davis, a West Des Moines resident who has photographed the interior of the barn for her photography website, hopes the outpouring of concern will impact the barn's future.
"In this area, there are a lot of barns out in the countryside, but so many of them are falling over; they're in disrepair, and this one is in remarkable condition," Davis says. "If the community is really passionate about something, they will find a way to make the money come. This many people stepping forward in eight days is a pretty good indication of how people feel about it, and they'll put their money where their heart is."
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Comments
Submitted by Chip at: January 25, 2011
What kind of message will it send to the students who will be attending that school? Tear anything historic and beautiful down just because it's convenient. Is that the legacy we want to pass along. Whoa! This is not good for community or society in general. It's "education"' upside down.