SW Barn Project Moving Forward

By DARLA M. YOUNGS
ONEONTA

At its meeting on Thursday, June 29, the City of Oneonta’s Common Council Finance and Human Resources Committee expressed support for the proposed Swart-Wilcox Barn Project.

David and Penny Wightman of Wightman’s Lumber had donated a barn on the family’s Crumhorn Mountain property to Oneonta’s Swart-Wilcox House Museum in response to a call for assistance last October. There had been a barn on the museum complex grounds from the 1790s until 1968, when the structure was burned down by the city as a fire-fighting exercise.

“It is now felt that a barn would help tell the story of the early settlers, who were mainly farmers,” wrote Helen K.B. Rees, president of the Friends of Swart-Wilcox in the museum’s October 2022 newsletter in an article titled “To Barn or Not to Barn…That is the Question,” which was reprinted that month in Iron String Press publications.

Swart-Wilcox has been a chartered house museum with the New York State Education Department since 2004.

“The next step is to obtain our IRS nonprofit status for the Swart-Wilcox House Museum. This 501c3 nonprofit status will allow us to solicit funds through grants and other private sources,” Rees explained.

The barn project itself will be done in two phases, according to Rees. Phase I involves preparing the site, laying the foundation and erecting the barn shell. Phase II will complete the interior of the barn and utilities, as well as install the climate controlled storage area for the collection. Each phase will be done as funds become available.

According to Rees, the original barn was most likely an English swing arm threshing barn.

“This barn had been built by Lawrence Swart in the late 1790s after he had built his cabin, but before he built his house in 1807. Then, in his 1874 diary, Henry Wilcox records the process of moving the barn from the field behind the house,” Rees wrote in the October newsletter.

The donated barn dates back to the early 1800s, with hand-hewn beams and wooden nails.

“It is still a solid upright structure and, when moved, will be both a meeting room and a storage area for the Swart-Wilcox collection,” said Rees.

Additional topics discussed by the Finance and Human Resources Committee at the June 29 meeting include a staffing update, Gardner Place reconstruction, Oneonta Public Transit contracts and Wilber Park improvements, among others. Recordings of many City of Oneonta Common Council and committee meetings can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@CityOfOneonta/streams.