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The iconic landmark along Route 283, just off the exit for Harrisburg International Airport in Dauphin County, is expected to make its move within two years.
It will be the centerpiece of Agrarian Country, an agricultural museum, exhibition hall and education center to be established in Lebanon County.
"It's a perfect location for what we hope and plan to do," Agrarian Country founder and president Robert Barr said Tuesday morning at a news conference in the barn.
"It's a beautiful site," said Barr, speaking over the sounds of heavy morning traffic on Route 283 and countless birds in the rafters. "It's at the center of tourism in southcentral Pennsylvania. And it's at the heart and soul of agriculture."
The new 300-acre site lies within a stone's throw of Penn National Race Course and the Hollywood Casino, just off Route 81 in East Hanover Township.
The site is a combination of four adjoining parcels nestled against a mountainside on the north side of Route 81, between the Grantville and Indiantown Gap exits, plus an additional two parcels on the south side of the highway.
The familiar white barn will occupy a place of honor on the highest point of the property, Barr said, so passing motorists there can enjoy it as much as motorists on Route 283 do today.
"All of the outbuildings are being moved, too," Barr said. "Even the stone fence. Everything you see on this site is being picked up and reassembled at the new site."Barn Saver, a Narvon-based barn-restoration firm owned by John High, will dismantle the structures after mapping and labeling every plank. The American Timber Framers Guild, a nonprofit association skilled in late 19th-century barn raisings, will reconstruct the barn using oxen, mules and draft horses for power.
"This is a big thing, a passionate thing," Barr said.
But it's not necessarily a fast thing.
"It's going to take about a year to complete all of the due diligence … and to know with all certainty that we can do all that we want to do there," Barr said.
Land development issues including storm water, sewer, traffic, zoning and design should be resolved within nine months, he said. But the project hinges on funds; Barr said he will launch a $10 million fundraising campaign soon.
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If all goes well, dismantling could begin in January, with reconstruction following in the fall. Otherwise, Barr said, he's looking at 2010.
Barr announced the purchase of the 135-year-old barn on behalf of Agrarian Country, a nonprofit organization, in December.
(224) (148) (15) (5) (3) (3) (3) (3) (3) (2)He said he explored several possible sites in the region, including some in Lancaster County, but found the Lebanon County site to be the best for his purposes.
He even thought about moving the barn as far as Centre County, but said "somewhere along the line I woke up and found my senses, and I realized the Star Barn needed to stay in southcentral Pennsylvania."
There was no chance of keeping the barn at its present location in Lower Swatara Township, he noted. Four acres, Barr said, is far too small for viable commercial uses.
"We needed at least 300 acres, and possibly as many as 1,000 acres," he said.
Agrarian Country has a binding agreement to purchase the 300-acre site, Barr said. Negotiations for several additional tracts — some contiguous, others a short distance away — are ongoing.
Pleasant View and Homestead roads provide access to the site.
"You can get to it from almost any direction," Barr said.
The land is zoned for agricultural uses and is surrounded by wheat and alfalfa fields and a thoroughbred horse farm.
The tract comes with two houses and barns, Barr said. Besides the Star Barn complex, he plans to add a carriage museum, general store, at least two covered bridges, a chapel and other structures to the site.
Barr expects the Star Barn to house a variety of exhibits and events, including banquets, concerts, art shows and auctions.
Agrarian Country will not be "just a museum where you can look at the past," Barr said, but a modern, fully operating farm promoting Pennsylvania's farm heritage, with dairy and beef cattle, bison and white-tailed deer among its herds, plus a greenhouse, vineyard, fishery and horse park.
"Our culture is changing," Barr, who grew up on a farm and taught agriculture at the high school and university levels, said. "We're losing track of where our food is coming from."
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The Star Barn was built in 1872 as a showcase for John Motter, a shipper and trader who made his fortune selling horses and mules to the Union Army during the Civil War. It was converted into a dairy barn in the 1920s.
The Gothic revival-style barn of German/Swiss construction and its surrounding complex of outbuildings — a chicken coop, carriage house and pig barn — are all sheathed in white clapboard. The barn, famous for its star-shaped louvers and trefoil-carved gingerbread trim, has been reproduced in countless paintings and photographs.
Robert A. Kinsley, president of Preservation Pennsylvania, said Barr's announcement comes "with a sigh of relief … and a sense of optimism."
Preservation Pennsylvania bought the property in 1998 and successfully campaigned to have the barn listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The organization has worked tirelessly, Kinsley said, to preserve the barn from the top of its intricate cathedral ceilings to the arched stone root cellar below.
"To really be saved, (historic structures) need a new life, a new use," he said. "We all know that the Star Barn has had a great past. Now we know it will have a great future."
E-mail: tknapp@lnpnews.com
