Old barns get closer look in Lake County

Despite its wavy, warped walls, a prominent old barn on Fish Lake Road near Gilmer Road in Volo may be spared because of its high visibility.

A few miles away, another barn where pigs once climbed manure piles to poke their faces out the windows is too far gone to be salvaged.

Instead a plaque with photos and information on what the Epstein barn had once been part of will be installed after it's demolished. The silo also will remain as a bit of education for hikers and bikers on the Fort Hill trail.

Both are among the 400 or so structures, including several barns, owned by the Lake County Forest Preserve District.

"If sacrifices have to be made, this is one," agreed Nancy Schumm-Burgess, who wrote "The Barns of Lake County" in 2004 and has a long-standing passion for the topic.

As a preservationist with extensive knowledge of the history and architecture of barns, her expertise on the subject has been sought by the district over the years.

Her opinion of how the district is dealing with a rapidly declining piece of Lake County history also has changed.

"This is very encouraging," she said of the recent public discussion of barns by the district's facilities committee, which didn't exist a few years ago. "They are beginning to recognize there is something important about them. Ten years ago, they didn't care."

District officials won't go that far, but say there has been a shift in the disposition of barns.

"There's been a more thoughtful discussion," said Mike Tully, director of operations and public safety, who has worked for the district for 19 years. "It's the first time the aesthetics, the scenic value has been discussed. In the past, we were discussing their condition and potential use."

Years ago, the district automatically would keep buildings on properties it acquired. Later, the policy was that buildings with no use were demolished.

"I want us to move off that policy a bit," said Commissioner Pat Carey of Grayslake, who chairs the facilities committee.

Since the real estate market has tanked, the district with voter-approved money has become the largest land buyer in Lake County. Many of those purchases have been farms that include the associated buildings.

Besides the obvious questions of liability for less-than-shipshape structures, another layer of consideration for barns is emerging.

"We look at each one because there may be something we can use it for," Carey said. "But if we don't have any apparent use for it, what comes next?"

For the first time, the district has included funds in its five-year capital improvement plan for barn restoration, with $100,000 for 2010-11.

"It's not a huge amount of money, but it's a start as a commitment we would do something in this area," Carey said.

An acknowledged preservationist, Carey thinks barns have value but admits there is a wide range of opinions among commissioners.

"The question is, 'What can we do for reasonable amounts of money?'"

Barns were the critical pieces of farm operations and come in a variety of styles. An agricultural census in 1945 listed 1,767 farms in Lake County. Schumm-Burgess said there are fewer than 200 barns now and the most recent census lists 95 used in active farm operation.

"It's just such a critical part of our history and we're getting down to the last few," she said. "They were symbolic of the industry in Lake County. People began to notice they were gone and you can't replace them."

On Fish Lake Road, the Singing Hills Forest Preserve is a hub for the Millennium Trail that is planned to weave 35 miles through central and western Lake County and northern Cook County and connect with hundreds of miles of other trails.

The focal point is a faded yellow dairy barn that stands alone on the flat terrain, its iconic "Singing Hills Farm" logo a beacon for travelers on busy Gilmer Road.

But the barn "is trying to fall over," Tully told facilities committee members and making it usable again is prohibitively expensive.

Stabilizing and securing the building is estimated to cost $150,000; replacing the internal framing, $350,000; replacing the existing barn to a point it could be used as a hay loft and storage, $442,000; and, replacement so it could be used as originally built is estimated at $607,000.

"This is one I would be really reluctant to tear down because of the visibility," Carey said.