Restoration Road (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - Vermont Craft Barn - full transcript

Galway, New York,

a rural community
of family farms,

two-lane roads

and a pretty easy pace
of life.

In Galway, you can still find
little pieces of the past.

Clues that help build
the story of this town

whose beginnings go back
nearly 250 years.

I'm here to meet Luke Larson,

a barn craftsman from Vermont

with a passion for keeping
history and tradition alive.

He's found a very old
and very rare structure



that he's dying to share
with me.

I'm Clint Harp
and I'm traveling America

to shed a light on some
incredible restorations

and transformations.

Get hands-on
with some of the builders

bringing these amazing places
back to life

and make sure
these new stories live on

for years to come.

Ooh, isn't she a beauty?

This is Restoration Road.

Morning. How are you, Luke?

Good, Clint.

Well, here it is.

What do you think?



We gotta hurry,

is what I'm thinking.

Yes, yes.

So this barn
would not survive another

New York winter.

- I'm so glad we can save it.
- Right, right.

Restore it
and give it another life.

- Show me this thing.
- Okay.

How did you come about

to seeing this thing
and going,

"Oh yeah, this is worth it?"

The property owners
contacted me.

- Okay.
- As soon as I saw

a photo of the outside,

I was captured
by the proportions.

- Okay.
- The proportions shout old.

Why?

The pitch of the roof

- is fairly steep.
- Okay.

And then
there were no windows,

which is a sign
of a really old barn

because glass
was too expensive.

My best guess is late 1780s.

Okay.
So tell me about these guys.

- Good Lord.
- Yeah. Aren't they something?

Imagine the tree
that this guy came out of.

I mean,
this is wide, buddy.

I think I measured 25 inches
on this one right here.

That's amazing.

- That's a handmade...
- Oh, a nice one.

- ...rose head nail.
- Yes.

- The rose head.
- Yeah.

And iron was valuable,

you had to have a good forge

and then you had to start out
with just a strip of metal

- and make that by hand.
- Yeah.

Nails were so valuable,

there were laws passed in New
England...

that if you were
gonna leave your property

- and head west...
- Yeah.

...you are not allowed
to burn down the buildings.

People would actually
burn their barn down,

sift through
to find those nails.

Burn the barn down
for the nails?

And it was big enough
a problem

that the legislatures...

...started passing laws.

Imagine. What a time.

Wow.

Whoo.

Isn't she a beauty?

Oh my heavens.

I love stepping
into a barn like this

and it immediately draws
my eyes

and spirit up.

This is not
what I expected, Luke.

It's a little different.

- From the outside.
- Right.

I'm going,
"What are you about to do?"

- Not the same thing.
- Yeah.

This looks usable, like

a lot of it.
So break it down for me.

And if you look
all the way up at the peak,

Clint, you can see
the five-sided ridge beam.

And that is one of the reasons
I fell in love with this barn.

I see two sides,

it'shewn to match
the pitch of the roof

greater than 90 degrees
on the top.

- Okay.
- And then they came off

- that with 90 degree faces.
- Okay.

And then in some places,

they'll flatten
the bottom surface

- and that's your fifth side.
- That's the fifth side.

And then
when we start taking off

these beautiful roof boards

we're gonna be
extremely careful

of the interior patina,
200 plus years

of just the right amount
of sunlight

- to get that beautiful color.
- Yeah.

- That's fragile.
- Yeah.

Take a look over here.

Look at this strap hinge.

- Wow.
- Hand-forged.

There was a blacksmith
shop up the street here.

No doubt
it was made very close.

Unfortunately, the second
strap hinge is missing.

So I think there's a chance
it fell into the ground.

And very lucky, we will start
digging down here

and who knows?
Maybe we'll find it.

- Treasure hunt.
- It could be there.

I'm all in on that.

I continue to be
amazed at the history

these old barns hold,
like living lessons

about the beginning
of our country.

It's as if the beams,
and rafters, and boards

are still talking to us
across the centuries.

Come on up to the hayloft.

Wow.

Here we are
a little closer to the roof.

It's even prettier
the closer you get.

What percentage of this barn

would you say
you have to replace?

We have
a lot of repairs to make

- to the post bottoms.
- Right.

So does that mean
you're gonna use those posts?

- We're gonna use the posts.
- Okay.

And we're gonna use
an English scarf joint

to add on another piece.

- I wanna see this.
- So it's a way to lock

two pieces of wood together
without using a nail.

There's quite a few to do

so you might even
get to try it.

Yeah. Great, great, great.

How long is that?

Forty-two feet

Ay yai yai.

Hand hewn.

All made by hand.

How long do you think
that would have taken?

A good hewer could
probably do that in two days.

Oh, stop, no.

- I'm getting down now.
- All right.

That's... I can't.

That's not true.

Two days?

So tell me what
this is all for.

What are you doing
with this thing?

I take down and restore barns

for business
and as my passion,

but this particular barn

is going to have its next home
at my shop

in Middletown Springs, Vermont

and it's going to be turned
into classroom space.

- Really?
- For us to teach

how to build
a timber frame like this

but also the old skills
like barrel making.

And this is incredible.

Last week, I was researching

the person
who built this barn.

- Okay.
- Reuben Waite.

And I found out
that he was a barrel maker.

In Reuben's old barn, you'll
be making barrels again.

In Reuben Waite's barn.
That's right.

Yeah.

That is awesome.

Beyond excited.

Hearing about
the beginnings of this barn

has got me thinking about

all the generations of people
who have worked in it,

made their livings from it,
and called this place home.

Luckily,
there's one person here

who can still speak

to more than 100 years

of this barn's history.

I think it's okay to ask this.

Uh, I hope
I'm not being impolite,

but what year were you born?

1915.

- 1915?
- 15.

- This is your place?
- Yes.

How long has it been
in your family's hands?

Oh my gosh,
years and years and years.

Your mother
and father lived here.

- Yes.
- Bought it.

- Did they really?
- Yes.

Tell me your favorite
memory here at the farm.

Favorite memory was, uh,

the old barn there
and we used to play in there.

When grandpa
backed his car in the barn.

Oh, yeah.

He wasn't used to cars,

you know,
he was used to horses.

He'd let up on the brake
and of course the car

would come forward
and then he started yelling,

whoa, whoa.

And we told him,
step on the brake.

He's yelling
whoa like it's a horse.

- Whoa, boy.
- Yeah.

The barn has been
through a lot obviously.

What do you think about
the fact that it's moving on

- and it's gonna be saved?
- Oh, yes, that's good.

I'm glad it isn't
just being burned down.

- Mmm-hmm.
- Thank you.

At a hundred and four,
you got to tell me,

- what's the secret?
- Well, I have no secret

except I lived every day,
you know, on the farm mostly.

I was kind
of expecting like, you know,

like little
grandpa's cough syrup

or something, you know, that.

Thank you for your time.

- Thank you.
- You're welcome.

- You're welcome, I'm sure.
- Yeah.

I'm glad to spend it with you.

I'm honored to have
been able to speak with Eva

and sharing in her memories,

and it's made me
even more curious now

about the man
who built this barn,

Reuben Waite.

So, Luke has agreed

to take me
on a little field trip

that will hopefully shed
more light on his life.

This is where the story
of my barn begins.

Wow.

Right here is Reuben Waite

born in 1765,

came to Galway,

helped to start
three churches.

Right. Okay.

And then over here,
strangely enough

is Samuel Mosher

who purchased the barn
in the 1860s

and it's intriguing to me

that he's buried with Reuben.

Yeah,
that is a little strange,

you know,
what's the connection thing?

Maybe the barn
was the connection.

Yeah, exactly.

Is that like a thing
we just don't know about?

- Luke Larson.
- Yeah.

- The fifth owner...
- There is a spot there.

Sixth owner of the barn.

So grateful
to all these people

- who took care of it.
- Yeah. Mmm-hmm.

Used it for barrel making,
basket weaving.

And now we're gonna make
barrels

and baskets in it again.

This is meant to happen.

- Yeah.
- You know,

I mean that is...
That's really, really cool.

- Yeah.
- I can't believe it.

That's awesome.

There you go,

the rose head.