EAST BRUNSWICK – A little bit of Canadian history is being preserved right here in the township.
Michael Baker, who owns a small farm on Church Lane and who is the longtime township attorney for East Brunswick, recently purchased a barn that was built in 1845 just over the Canadian border. He recently had it moved to his property and re-erected, and plans to use it for a variety of purposes.
“So many old barns are falling apart from disuse, or are being bulldozed by developers,” Baker said. “I thought it would be a pretty neat idea to save this piece of history.”
The barn will be heated and air-conditioned, and Baker plans to use it partly as a wood shop.
“It will be a place to relax,” he said. “It will be fit for humans, not animals.”
The two-story, antique building is made of hand-hewn white pine, and is 36 feet wide by 56 feet long.
There is an entire industry devoted to salvaging and restoring old barns, Baker noted. After some research he decided to buy the barn and have it restored on the 4-acre farm where he grows fruits, nuts, and tomatoes. He sells the tomatoes to a local restaurant that likes to buy organically grown foods from local farmers.
PHOTOS BY CHRIS KELLY staff Michael Baker checks one of the giant wooden drawls used to secure a cross beam on the historic barn he had moved to his property on Church Lane in East Brunswick. Baker, also the township attorney, owns a small farm and plans to use the re-erected barn as a woodshop and other purposes. The barn was built in 1845. “This is a hobby, a very time-intensive hobby,” Baker said of farming. “I spend about 20 hours a week during the growing season, but obviously there is a break in the winter.”
Caring for the farm usually takes all day Saturday, much of Sunday, and “a little bit each day in between,” he said.
The barn’s frame is mostly up, and workers were continuing work on the interior and roof last week.
“Some beams are 36 feet long and 24 inches thick,” Baker noted. “You just don’t see construction like this anymore.” He made note of the mortise and tenon joints and wooden pegs that hold the barn together, and a hand-carved dovetail joint that keeps two large beams connected.
Baker also marveled at the fact that, back in the day, workers were able to assemble something like this with ropes, oxen and other labor intensive means.
“It’s interesting they did something this massive before any power equipment,” he said.