Barn could be on the move

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WEST JORDAN - How many history buffs does it take to move a century-old barn?

"If we all pick up a corner," West Jordan Mayor David Newton joked to seven board members of the city's historical society last week as they gathered around the old Steadman barn near 2200 West and 7000 South.

But it will take more than sheer human power to move - and save - the 3,600-square-foot, two-story structure. The society needs at least $25,000 to place the building on a flatbed trailer, haul it nine blocks to the West Jordan Historical Museum and plant it on a new foundation. Otherwise, it will be demolished to make way for $400,000 homes.

Although the barn's current owner, real estate developer Larry Oreno, donated it a year ago, moving it has been complicated by the fact that utility wires along the route will have to be temporarily raised or disconnected to make way for the barn's 26-foot-tall frame, which is too brittle to be disassembled and moved.

"It breaks my heart to think about tearing it down," Oreno said. "That's not my preference."

But the land the barn sits on - ample enough for two quarter-acre-plus lots - is part of Oreno's retirement fund. Already the barn is an obvious anachronism, surrounded by brand-new subdivision homes.

Rocky Mountain Power has volunteered to move electrical lines as an in-kind donation, but the historical society still is negotiating with Comcast and Qwest to move cable and phone wires.

Linda Dalley, chairwoman of the society's board and a West Jordan planning commissioner, also hopes to see the foundation donated for the barn's new home.

"We love money, but if we could have someone call and say, 'We're going to help you move it.' That's really what we want," Dalley said.

So far, $20,000 has been donated or pledged, including a $5,000 check hand-delivered last week by Newton and his wife, Sandy.

"I'm putting my money where my mouth is," the mayor said. "There are a lot of old families that [settled West Jordan]. The Steadman name is one of those that comes up all the time. This [barn] is the last little piece of their history. . . . We can preserve a little bit of our roots."

Lynn Steadman built the barn in the late 1800s or early 1900s, according to Dalley's husband, Bob Dalley, curator of the West Jordan Historical Museum. The family sold milk to the now-defunct Hogan Dairy, also known as Moo Milk.

The barn, one of the largest structures in the area at the time, played host to numerous community dances through the 1940s.

"We don't have the grand Victorian mansions" of Salt Lake City, Linda Dalley said. "We were more of a farm community. That's why we're interested in saving the barn, because it's so unique in our farming heritage."

Only two other historical barns remain in West Jordan, she said, but the Steadman barn is likely the oldest.

The Dalleys founded the West Jordan Historical Museum in 1999. They lease land at 2053 W. 7800 South on the city's 100-acre Veterans Memorial Park for a dollar a year.

The couple, with help from other history enthusiasts, have assembled nine buildings at the site - most no larger than sheds - including one of the city's earliest soda fountains, a replica of a blacksmith's shop (complete with turn-of-the-century tools) and a chicken coop that's home to nine chickens.

Once the barn lands at the museum, Bob Dalley plans to house his dairy display in the loft, featuring equipment and bottles used by West Jordan's earliest dairy farms. The ground floor will provide shelter to a 1925 wheat-threshing machine and two 1940s firetrucks - including the first one used by the city's volunteer fire department.

"Through the years, a lot of our history was going to the dump so that's why we started the museum," Linda Dalley said. "We're history nuts - probably just plain old nuts, to tell you the truth."

rwinters@sltrib.com