Battle over Barn Continues Thursday Night

The next round in the battle of the barn is set for Thursday night in Easttown. The owners of the "Kennedy Barn" at 222 Waterloo Road have already been issued a demolition permit after clearing a number of hurdles set out by Easttown Supervisors.  That owner is Bentley Homes. The developer is building eight other home sites on the property.

Now people who do not want to see the barn, which is literally just an empty shell at the moment, are taking another shot at saving the structure in front of the Easttown Township Zoning Hearing Board. As described in the public hearing notice from the township opponents of the demolition "have appealed the July 10, 2013 issuance of a demolition permit to Boathouse Realty Associates, L.P., the equitable owner of the property, for a demolition of the historic structure. The Appellants have appealed pursuant to §810 of the Easttown Township Zoning Ordinance contending that the demolition permit should not have been issued for procedural and substantive reasons.  The Appellants include the following: Kemp and Adair Littlepage; Donald Clarke; Dale and Barbara Weigand; James and Joan Bergquest; Nicholas Pawloski; Suzi Hunt; and Dr. and Mrs. Parvis Kambin."

A historic review of the barn, which is currently for sale at a one million dollar asking price, was done in October 2012.  In the report  Architectural Historian and Historic Preservation Consultant Jane E. Dorchester concluded the following:

CONCLUSION:  Based on the research conducted to date and the October 25, 2012 site visit, the barn portion of the extant building located at 222 Waterloo Road in Easttown Township was built sometime between c. 1811 and 1833.  I have, therefore, placed a “c. 1822” date on the barn as being midway between the two terminal possible dates of construction. 

RECOMMENDATION:  My recommendation is that, because the core of the extant building located at 222 Waterloo Road is an early Nineteenth Century barn (a rare occurrence in Chester County), it should be listed as a locally significant historic resource and every effort should be made to preserve it.

The developer says it would simply cost too much to build a home inside the old barn's shell. The barn is for sale and if someone wants to buy it and build it as a home, it's available for purchase.

What do you think?  

Weigh in here in the comments section at the bottom of this artcile.

The zoning board meets tonight at 7:00 p.m. at the Hilltop House (adjacent to Township Building), 570 Beaumont Road.