In 1990, John High left his job at an excavating company -- where he bulldozed old barns and houses to make room for development -- and began The Barn Saver Project, saving buildings he'd always hated destroying.
      Starting with an 1880's vintage bank barn, High began taking old structures apart, piece-by-piece, saving the flooring, siding, beams, hardware and even the contents -- from pig troughs to lightning rods.
     What began as a niche business expanded with the 1999 publication of a book by High's wife, Linda Oatman High. The book was named Best Picture Book of 1999 by Booklist, the review journal of the American Library Association. The associated Press picked up an article. Business boomed.
     The Barn Savers a lavishly illustrated book from Boyds Mill Press, celebrates High's work with a poetic story of father and son, in hardhats and flannel shirts, working together to gently rescue a derelict, roofless barn -- a building many would see as junk . . . not John High.
     The original Barn Saver, High keeps barns alive, salvaging 80 to 90 percent of each and every one. For barns that will be reset elsewhere, High carefully preserves the integrity of the building by drawing up a blueprint and using it to number each piece of wood. The barns live on.
      John's main territory is Pennsylvania. His mission is to save as many barns as is humanly possible for one man, recycling the materials rather than land filling them.
     The Barn Saver has donated materials for projects which he considers to be good causes. Wood from dismantled buildings has appeared in stage sets of school plays and in the altars of churches. In December of 1999, the timbers from a falling-down barn were donated to artist Barry Hoch, who constructed a new stable for the old nativity scene in the town square of Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
     Upon making his first cut for the manger, the artist reported to the Barn Saver that a perfect five-point star appeared out of the wood. It was a pattern which wood experts contacted by Hoch had never before seen.

     John High and The Barn Saver Project considers the Christmas Star miraculously formed in an  old barn timber to be a symbol. The cause must go on. 

SEE A VIDEO:
The Barn Saver, segment from GreenWorks Television Production

 

John High with a "wood spirit" carved from an old barn beam reclaimed by The Barn Saver.

The Barn Saver Song

This old barn is beautiful in its rugged way;

Though long gone, you still can smell the horses and the hay;

Faded paint peels like sunburn on a farmer's face;

The old boards are cracked and splintered, yet it's full of grace.

 

CHORUS:

Piece by piece, 

beam by sturdy beam

Reclaiming, saving pieces of a dream

Saving barns from landfill graves

Living on, the barns are saved.

 

This old barn will live on for another hundred years;

In one hundred different places, the barn will still be here;

This old barn belongs to the future, as well as days gone by;

The Barn Saver reclaims history, so the memories do not die.

Lyrics by Linda Oatman High - www.lindaoatmanhigh.com; composed and performed by Donna Upson - www.DonnaUpson.com copyright 2003

 

A Pennsylvania barn, reclaimed by The Barn Saver, lives on in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, thanks to master craftsman Wayne Yonce.