(Host) State officials suggest this might be a great weekend for Vermonters to take a fall foliage drive – and to take some pictures of barns along the way.
The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation is the sponsor of a census designed to document all of the state’s existing farm buildings.
Architectural historian Nancy Boone is in charge of the project.
(Boone) “There are barns both grand and humble that we’re hoping to capture in this census. Really we wanted to get the broad picture of the entire agricultural landscape.”
(Host) Boone says there’s a form at the Web site HistoricVermont-dot-org that details what information census takers should look for.
The state wants to get a photo and a description of all the barns. When the census is complete next fall, the information will be used to preserve the buildings.
Boone says she’s interested in everything from big dairy barns to little chicken coops.
(Boone) “There are many small outbuildings like that that we’re hoping to see included in the census and learn more about. So, we have hen houses and we have mink sheds and fox sheds and ash houses and lots of small specialized buildings that may be sitting out unnoticed. And we hope that those will come to light in the census.”
(Host) Volunteers can go to the Web site to enter the photos and other information that they gather. A link is on our Web site, vpr-dot-net.