C4-Lanctsttr Farming, Saturday, April 15,1989
Rough
KINZERS (Lancaster)
Rough and Tumble Museum,
located along Route 30 at Kinzers,
PA, has long been noted as the
place where folks restore old
steam and gas machinery and
demonstrate k on show days.
Recently Rough and Tumble com
mitted itself to the largest restora
tion project in its 40-year history;
the dismantling, moving and
rebuilding of a Lancaster County
bam built the same year the Union
Pacific Railroad was completed,
1869.
Some important details already
have been addressed. Blueprints
for the reconstruction have been
submitted to the Department of
Labor and Industry and have been
accepted by them. Bam place
ment, grading and the excavation
work nefeded at the museum’s
33-acre site are still on paper, and
the bam is still standing where it
BIG BALE CHOPPERS
from KIDD give regular bale
For animal feed, bedding or mulching! the Kidd Big Bale
Chopper provides either or both sides delivery controlled from
the tractor seat. It saves on hay, straw and labour. And with
air box adaptor, it blows material through a 7 inch dia. flexible
hose, ideal for landscaping applications. For animal feed, it
chops and shreds hay to provide better digestion and increas
ed growth rates and, for bedding, it means less waste. For
mulching it can be used around strawberry plants or apple
trees with considerable saving on straw and labour.
MMm ■ ■ -on the right track
■LMMB for efficient farming
I
& Tumble Museum To Restore Lancaster
was built 120 years ago along the
Fruitville Pike north of Lancaster.
It can’t remain there long, howev
er, for instead of overlooking fer
tile fields the bam now stands
majestically at the edge of a deve
lopment of attractive single
family homes. The broad street,
lined with new houses, stops sud
denly a few hundred feet from the
front of the bam; the street has
been planned for completion later
this year. The bam must go.
When the bam was built back in
1869, right after the Civil War, it
was on the 180-acre farm of Ben
jamin B. Groff, on the east side of
what was then the Fruitville Toll
Road and directly across from the
old log house which served as a
toll gate. The 63x 100-feet bam
was located in the middle of the
farm, and was built of western
timbers hauled in by rail and then
transported to the building site'by
horse power. No other form ot
power had reached Lancaster
County at that time.
About 20 years after the Groff
barn was built the farm was
divided into two farms and the
portion with the new bam along
the road was bought by Pete Gray
bill, a horse trader who wanted to
be located along the main high
way. Graybill built a two-story
brick house next to the bam. The
house still stands at that site.
Because of the bam’s large size,
now on a smaller farm, there was
never a need for additions or reno
vations. The bam was well main
tained and, therefore, stands tall
and stately among new 1980 s
houses.
The bam, a gift to Rough and
Tumble museum from Robert and
Esther Lefever, Will not have the
same date as those that have been
cut down with a chain saw and
140-90 DT Power Shift Tractor
sliced into 1-inch boards used to *
produce reproduction antique fur 7
niture. Instead, relocated on
Rough and Tumble grounds, the
bam will become a display area
for genuine antiques such as the
farm equipment and other barn
related items that Rough and
Tumble has been acquiring during
its 40-year history.
Instead of hanging from the raf
ters, or being buried behind other
items packed in too tightly to be
seen, these items can be placed in
their proper environment for this
and future generations to see,
enjoy, and leam from.
The projected time-table calls
for the bam to be dismantled by
July and transported to Rough and
Tumble’s grounds. It is planned to
have the new concrete foundation
and stone facing work done by this
fall, with the bam itself to be
erected in the spring of 1990.
Turning the completed bam into a
museum of agricultural heritage is
expected to be a two-year project,
with completion in 1991.
As has been true of Rough and
Tumble’s other projects, much of
HESSIWSSISi
Haaalon Corporation a Mambtr of lha FIAT Group
iil
BP-25 Bale Proc—or
Barn
the work involved with this hist
ic preservation project will be «
unteered. A member has alrej
offered to do the necessary gg
ing and excavation as his coq
bution to the project, and other
kind donations have already be
offered. A new roof, electric wo
a cistern, heat in one portion
year-round use, and other necei
ties mean a '‘bain fund” is needi
however.
Rough and Tumble museum
developing a community awi
ness program in conjunction \
this barn’s move, in the hopes
others may want to be a pat
this project of preservation of
agricultural heritage. Contri
dons may be made to; Rough
Tumble’s Bam Committee,!
Box 9, Kinzers, PA 17535. Tj
wishing more information at
the project may write to the ab
address or call the Bam Com
tee chairman Daniel Eberso
717/768-3200, or Hope Emc
at 717/533-9032. Personi
businesses who might wanf
make an in-kind donation she
contact Ebersol.
56-46 DT Utility Tractor
SL 30 skld Stoor Loader
60-66 DT Low Profit* Tractor