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'Barnwood Builders' TV Series Gives Porter Twp. Delp Barn New Life


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‘Barnwood Builders’ TV Series Gives Porter Township Delp Barn New Life

barn.jpgPORTER TWP., Pa. (EYT) – The Delp Barn near the Leatherwood Church on Delp Road was built in 1836 as part of a family farm started by German immigrants, but it is now going to have a continued life throughout the United States after a crew from Barnwood Builders, a popular television show on DIY Network, recently lovingly disassembled the barn for use in other projects.

(Photos courtesy DIY)

The show also provided a surprise ending at the close of the first of a two part series about the farm.

The barn was a Pennsylvania bank barn, a sturdy and reliable structure built by German immigrants in the 1830’s.  Not only were the immigrants good farmers, they were also excellent builders, and the Barnwood Builders marveled at the craftsmanship that allowed the barn to stand since 1836.

barn 2

“Our family was sad as we watched them remove the barn wood,” said Alan Delp. “The family had the 200-acre farm on the site, and the homestead was where the barn was.  The barn was built in 1836 by my great, great grandfather Jacob Hamm, my grandmother’s grandfather.

“It was hard for me to watch because I grew up in that barn.  I was born in 1948, and it was already 100 years old.”

Walk from barn

Alan and his sisters Vivian Russell and Madelyn Callen returned to their roots for interviews with Mark Bowe, host and leader of the Barnwood Builders. The first hour of the Delp Farm project aired on Sunday at 9:00 p.m. and featured taking “the skin” off the barn, along with the roof.  The second hour to be aired on Sunday, August 20, at 9:00 p.m., will deal with the removal of the frame for the barn.

The DIY Network is available on many cable and satellite services.  DIY stands for Do It Yourself.

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While it took immigrants from Germany to build the barn, Rowe and his experts come from West Virginia, and Delp was impressed.

“These guys that are part of the working men in Barnwood Builders are all really great country people.  You feel at home with them as if you’ve known them all your life.”

“It was a huge barn, but what surprised me was as Mark walked through the barn with us in tow, he started to see things that I had never seen before like the fact the original barn was only about half the size of the barn in 2017.  Later generations expanded the barn as needed.”

While the barn was built in 1836, the brick house home was not built until about 1845, according to Delp. The bricks for the house were baked on the site and was made on the farm.

Barn Talk

What’s the show about?

Barnwood Builders salvage antique barns and cabins before the timber can deteriorate. Their goal is to put new life into worn-out structures.

Perhaps the best description of Barnwood Builders comes from the Greenbrier Valley West Virginia website:

“On the surface, the show is about a crew that rescues 150-year-old cabins and barns, so they can be repurposed as high quality, eye-catching contemporary homes and public buildings.”

“Just below the surface, it’s about some old-fashioned virtues: hard work, perseverance, kindness, and friendship. As the show enters its third season, Bowe finds himself adjusting to the challenge of being recognized by fans from near and far as he tries to maintain a semblance of normal family life in the Greenbrier Valley with his wife Cindy and their son Atticus.”

The changing homestead

delp-family
(Pictured: Vivian Russell, Alan Delp, and Madelyn Callen)

“Part of the homestead where my family grew up was sold to people who are not members of our family,” said Delp. “The homestead and the buildings and about 10 acres were sold and that included the barn.  He had the right to sell the barn, and he contacted Barnwood Builders.”

Delp said the person who bought it was being taxed pretty heavily because of the number of buildings.

“There were probably seven buildings there— pig pens, chicken coops, machine sheds, and barn.  The way taxes are done nowadays, it’s just too difficult to keep paying taxes on buildings you don’t use. Taxes (are) based on the structure and what they are used for.”

Bill Allwine is the new owner, and he fell in love with the place.

“Bill is an avid hunter, and he rented the brick house for a few years before he bought it from my nephews who owns about three-quarters of the farm now. Bill just fell in love with the farm.  The hunting out there is very good for anything.”

Delp’s nephew also runs the Delp Game Bird Farm.  The farm supplies everything you need to hunt, except the gun.

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Surprise ending

At end of Sunday’s show, the individual pieces of wood were cataloged and prepared for shipping to a new location for new life, and the barn’s remaining wood frame was carefully recorded for positions of beams in order to restore it later at another location. Afterward, Mark Bowe looked at the crew and said he had made a decision.

He was going to use it to build his own home in West Virginia.

The heart and soul of the Delp Barn will live on.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    http://www.explorejeffersonpa.com/barnwood-builders-tv-series-gives-porter-township-delp-barn-new-life/#more-193414

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