"In the quiet western Maine town of Brownfield, a
painstakingly restored 1810 barn that survived the great fire of 1947 has been
transformed into a vibrant music venue that draws audiences far and wide.
"Together with its younger sister, a second barn built in
1996, it's home to the Stone Mountain Arts Center, which was created by a
veteran folk singer.
"'If these beams could talk,' says Carol Noonan, a traveling
songstress and strummer who bought the property 25 years ago with her husband,
Jeff Flagg.
"And what a tale the pegs would tell. . . .
"Like many barn owners, she was enraptured by this rustic,
traditional, very New England building.
"'It was this barn that made us buy the house,' said Noonan,
who reveres these agrarian structures the way some songwriters admire ships or
pine for lost loves. . . .
"Why do barns speak to us now?
"'They are a connection to our past and a much simpler time,'
said J. Scott Campbell of Maine Mountain Post and Beam in Fryeburg, who
restored Noonan's 200-year-old barn. 'You can also feel the soul of an old
building. From the way it was constructed by hand, to the generations of use.'"
A recent Bangor Daily News article reported on the Stone Mountain Arts Center and the increasing appreciation for barns in Maine.
To access the complete Bangor Daily News article, please visit:
Bangor Daily News: ‘If these beams could talk’: A story of why Maine barns are having their moment (20 APR 15)
Background information:
Stone Mountain Arts Center: Barn Raising Lobby Project (including lyrics of “The Barn Song”)
Yankee: Slide Show: Barns of New England
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment