PotPourri Of Global Interest: Before and after: Old Tobacco Barn Restoration

by Betsy Freese

I wanted to share this letter and photos about a tobacco barn project at Historic St. Mary’s City, Maryland.

I saw a column by Betsy Freese in your Fall 2010 issue about restoring barns. She asked for more stories and images. I am writing to you from a museum in Southern Maryland, Historic St. Mary’s City. In addition to researching and interpreting Maryland’s first capital, St. Mary’s City, the museum also protects and preserves the rural character of its site. In Southern Maryland, a significant portion of the rural heritage is our tobacco barns. The museum has already restored one barn dated to 1785. We are now rehabilitating an early 20th barn with support from the students at our sister institution, St. Mary’s College of Maryland. We hired a skilled craftsmen to carry out the project.

This has been a project that is close to the hearts of members of the community, who are familiar with the barn, our staff, faculty, and students at the College, two of whom completed their capstone projects by researching the barn’s history.

The students can now use it for exhibits or events. We have also reserved 5 acres from the museum’s fields for the campus farm that started this past summer. Some of us are becoming farmers down here!

Thank you – Regina Faden

Regina Faden, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Historic St. Mary’s City
St. Mary’s City, MD 20686