Star Barn 1993 scratch built.

Here is a small model I built out of posterboard and balsa wood in 1993 of this locally well known Harrisburg, PA landmark. Located along Route 283 in Highspire, just outside of Harrisburg, the structure  had been languishing for years. Built around 1872, by a well to do horse breeder and trader John Motter, this barn and its outbuildings were meant to be a showcase farm.

 North side, (View one would see from Route 283).

In the early 1990's the barn had fallen into such disrepair, that people were concerned that it would be demolished for a high density housing project, and a grassroots effort was made to "Save the Star Barn".

 South side, or barnyard side view.

There were numerous articles and fundraisers to stabilize the condition of the barn, and it's outbuildings. The owner put the place up for sale. In the meantime, in 2000, the barn was cosmetically restored by the Millport Conservancy, headed up by Robert Wolhsen, Sr. In the meantime, it was sold for a second time to the Agrarian Country, a non profit organization dedicated to preserving icons of agricultural heritage. including the likes of the Star Barn.

West gable end view.

The plans are to dismantle the barn, and move it to Grantville to be the centerpiece of a big farming museum complex. This is where we are at right now.

East gable end view. 

In 1993, during the middle of what I call the "Star Barn frenzy Years", I decided to build this model.

Northeast 3/4 view.

It is rather small. The foundation footprint of the model is only about 7" by about 4-1/2", not including the barnhill or the barnyard enclosure. I put shingles on the  roof of this model, as opposed to the corrugated metal roof the actual barn has now, as the barn originally had  a cedar shake shingled roof that would have turned quickly gray after being exposed to the weather, so that is why I painted the roof gray, as originally built in 1872.

Southwest 3/4 view.

I used a dried out ballpoint pen to heavily emboss the cardboard with grooves to simulate the siding and louvre textures of the barn's siding and ventilators.  I did the same thing to  simulate the stone foundation, and barnyard fence by embossing wavy lines on it to simulate the mortar lines in between the stones, then I hand painted it gray.

Cupola detail.


Jim.

Handmade wooden toy bank barn remodeling job, cupolas, and all!!

This is a model that I did not build. I bought it from someone else who built it, but he did a real rough job in doing so. I completely remodeled it, detailed it, added cupolas that I designed, as well added ventilators, windows, and cross buck details for the doors. I also added the white wooden vertical wall corner mouldings, as well. I smoothed over all the uneven joints, and added a piece of plywood to the bottom of the model to give it more structural integrity. I painted on by hand the stone details for the foundation, and the barn hill retainer walls. I repainted the roof edges white, from gray. Added two cross buck doors to the livestock barnyard side of the barn, as well as adding windows there. This model is rather large, as it is 15" long, measuring from gable to gable, and adding the roof overhang, and about 12" high at the roof peak and 13" wide, measuring at the gable end roof overhangs. The model is mostly made of painted 3/8",and 7/16" rough hewn scrap plywood, and skid slat wood construction, with painted solid maple wood cupola assemblies. The ventilator assemblies with their louvre slats on the cupolas, as well as on the barn's walls themselves, window frames, and cross buck door trim mouldings are all made from heavy gauge cardboard, and mat board material, and painted the colors as needed. The model's front and rear cross buck doors open and close on jewelry box hinges, painted white to match the rest of the barn's trim, and the door handles are tiny cuphooks screwed into the doors, painted aluminum. The "glass" in the six actual window openings in the barn is clear polystyrene plastic. The two windows on the livestock level are false windows. The guy who originally designed the overall configuration of this barn did not cut window openings there. There are only six actual window openings in the upper levels of the barn. The overall height of the barn at the central cupola weathervane lightning rod is 17-3/4". Living in Lancaster County, PA, I have seen lots of bank barns of this fancy style when I was a kid, all almost every one of them are gone, now. Victims of overdevelopement. This is not a model of any one specific barn, but of a menagerie of several barns that I remember from when I was a kid, and also a Plain friend that I work with, who gave me some pointers, and recolletions of barns his friends and relatives have, or did have.

This model was originally built to be a farm play toy, but I turned it into what would be in real life an agricultural Taj Mahal.

I got the model in October of 2010, last year, and I just put the finishing touches on it yesterday, May 15, 2011.

Here are some pictures of the completed model.

Other than some preliminary cleanup and surface prep work as well as repaint and the stone foundation detail that is painted on the model, here, these two images are of the barn, basically the way I bought it in October of 2010. I also in these pictures had already added a plywood bottom to the model, as it did not have one when I bought it at the time.

Early working design drawings of  the cupolas I did before making them.

Jim.