The Demise of a Landmark

LEBANON,OH -- I’ve always admired the old wooden barns that once dotted our farmlands. I’m glad I took the time to snap a picture each time I saw an interesting one because they are disappearing from the landscape as time passes, and they just don’t seem to make barns out of wood anymore. 

The old wooden barns would often have dirt floors perhaps carpeted with straw around the livestock stalls. Today’s barns appear to be metal buildings sitting on concrete slabs. They seem sterile and bored with their very existence. Wooden barns had personality.

Not far from where I live was a barn I admired for at least ten years, if not longer. I drove past it several times a month on my jaunts to our area parks where I hike the nature trails. This barn had wooden siding painted red. 

Stubbs Mill Barn October 2013...GOING

It was old when I first saw it. It may have been built back when I was a kid. It had a turret or cupola at each end of its long roof. Its windows were missing and some of the siding had fallen away. Ivy was climbing from the ground all the way to the rooftop. I often saw vultures perched on the roof. And, it looked like the kind of place where owls might roost, although I never saw one there. 

Stubbs Mill Barn May 2023...GOING

The barn looked a little older each time I saw it.  Then, it collapsed thanks to the recent winds of Hurricane Helene in late September. 

Stubbs Mill Barn September 2024....GONE

I feel like I lost an old friend. A long-standing Warren County landmark is gone.

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