New Life for an Old Barn
Travelers approaching the Kill Creek Road exit on Highway 10 might notice the tidy, cupolaed barn at the northwest corner of the intersection. Not so long ago, this barn sat unused and decaying on a former farm site several miles away. In 1999-2000, it was rescued and restored by De Soto resident Darrel Zimmerman and a team of local volunteers. For their efforts, the team recently received the Award for Excellence from the Kansas Preservation Alliance.
After leaving the public education field in 1993, Zimmerman devoted himself to restoring the 30-acre Kill Creek Farm, a property that has been in his family since 1949. Not only is it a working farm—the Zimmermans grow pumpkins, raise livestock, and keep bees—but it also serves as an educational site. With the stated mission of “maintaining the rural heritage of Johnson County,” the farm hosts guided tours for some 3,000 school children every year. The Zimmermans also sell pumpkins and host an annual Harvest Festival every fall.
Within a few years, the need for expanded facilities became evident. The search began for an appropriate structure that would provide space for farm equipment and supplies, serve as a classroom for school groups and be a shelter for the annual festival.
The search ended in May 1999, when the Zimmermans visited the Ernest Waitzmann property near the southeast corner of 135th Street and Spoon Creek Road. There stood a dilapidated timber-frame barn waiting to be given away to anyone willing to take it down. The structure was originally built on a 160-acre farm, possibly by the Roland White family, Quakers who came to Kansas in 1882 from Pennsylvania. The Whites retained ownership for over 50 years. In 1970, the Waitzmanns purchased 20 acres including the house and barn.
The White-Waitzmann barn, measuring approximately 37 by 58 feet, is a transverse crib type timber frame structure. Sills, posts and tie beams are sawn Douglas fir anchored with mortise and tenon joinery and oak pegs. Horses were stabled on one side, and the other housed grain bins and a cow milking area. A threshing floor ran between down the length of the barn, with access through large rolling doors at the gable ends. Hay could be raised to the loft using a trolley system on an oak track. Volunteers took careful measurements to determine how best to mark components for reconstruction of the barn at the Kill Creek site. They decided to mark only the posts, since the braces had been cut so accurately they varied only 1/8 inch in length, and other framing components still carried identifying marks from the original construction. A contractor from Jamesport, Missouri soon arrived with a crew of five, who dismantled the barn in four days and moved the pieces to the new site. Due to deterioration, roofing and siding were replaced with new materials as part of the reconstruction at Kill Creek Farm.
Reassembling the barn involved the efforts of many local volunteers. In June 2001, they celebrated completion of the project by gathering on site for an appreciation dinner. For the occasion, the newly refurbished building housed a display of artwork depicting barns. The barn now stands as a tribute to farming in Johnson County and a symbol of the kind of community effort that resulted in the building’s preservation.
--ALBUM vol. 15, no. 3 (summer 2002)