Charles Hillinger’s America : ‘Farm Boy’ Allergic to Hay . . . but Not to Barns : David Ciolek Crusades to Rescue Threatened Structures From Demolition

David Ciolek is a crusader who hopes to rescue a vintage slice of Americana from the demolition crews--the old-style big red barns.

Most of the barns were put up between 1850 and 1920. But they’re now being torn down in wholesale fashion nationwide.

“Anything standing that long deserves to be saved and restored,” Ciolek said. “Farming methods are changing. The old barn isn’t being used or cared for as it was in the past.

“Many are in terrible shape, leaning, sagging, collapsing, abandoned. Farmers pay taxes on the old barns. They can’t get the (use) out of them that they did in the past. Farmers are getting rid of them, yet, 90% of the barns are salvageable.”

In the last five years Ciolek--a 37-year-old, 6-foot-2, “lifelong farm boy allergic to hay”--has saved almost 300 barns in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Ciolek, who lives in this small mid-Michigan town on the farm his grandparents bought in 1918, has found a relatively inexpensive way to renovate barns by using a truss system he developed.

He removes low lofts and posts and opens up the inside of the barn, providing all kinds of new space by installing a triangular-shaped truss on each cross beam. The structure offers ample roof and side wall support.

He also squares, straightens and strengthens the barns, giving them a new lease on life for about $3,500 to $6,500, depending upon size. That is half to two-thirds less the cost of modern metal pole barns.

“Dave Ciolek’s gospel of barn renovation is proving that the century-old dinosaurs could be useful again without breaking the bank,” John Walter, conservation editor of Successful Farming, wrote in the March, 1988, edition of the national magazine.

Mary Humstone, Barn Again director for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, commented in the Successful Farming article about a barn restoration by Ciolek, saying: “This project shows that even when the foundation is crumbling, it’s possible to repair the damage and put the building back to use.”

The magazine’s feature, “The Best Way to Make Old Barns Practical Again,” brought an avalanche of mail to Ciolek’s Birch Run home.

“I received more than 800 letters from farmers in every state, wanting me to come out and look at their old barns, to see if they could be rejuvenated. No way could I ever get to 800 barns, yet, I want to see as many barns saved and restored as possible,” Ciolek said.

So, he has come up with a two-cassette video package that sells for $100. It shows step-by-step how to truss, square and straighten a barn. He sells the tapes out of his home.

“The farmer can do the work himself or hire somebody,” Ciolek said. “There are so many old barns out there needing renovation. The video package can put people to work all over the country, saving barns and rescuing these national treasures.”

He had three crews working for him, trussing and restoring barns throughout the Midwest, but could not keep up with the work. His wife, Nancy, is pregnant for the first time in the 17 years of their marriage.

“I had been spending too much time on the road and too little time at home,” he said. “I was managing people instead of being on-site, doing the work I wanted to do. . . . That’s how I came up with the do-it-yourself, save-your-own-barn video cassettes.”

When Ciolek graduated from Michigan State University 14 years ago, he noticed occasional ads in small-town Michigan newspapers. They were placed by farmers, offering their old barns free of charge to anyone who would take them down and cart them away.

“I went into the barn-wood lumber business,” Ciolek recalled. “The unpainted, rustic barn sidings and great old beams made of virgin wood were ideal for restaurant interiors and recreation rooms. I did eight restaurants in Detroit alone, accompanied by plaques telling the history of the barn.”

He built his own home out of barn-wood lumber.

But, he observed, “after awhile, I got to thinking about those old barns. It just wasn’t right tearing them down. The rural areas weren’t the same without them. I thought of the 800-year-old barns in Europe. That’s when I decided to embark on a campaign to save the old barns, rather than destroy them.”

There are thousands of old-style barns in every state, but they are rapidly disappearing. Michigan, noted for its huge 100-to-150-year-old barns, alone has an estimated 80,000 barns.

About the only people in the country still building the old-style huge red barns are the Amish and Mennonites, who put them up in old-fashioned community sessions.

But, meantime, others continue to tear down other barns, leaving Ciolek plenty of work to do.

He says he wants to keep up his efforts, labors such as restoring neglected, collapsing barns into living barns, working barns. He has converted barns into houses, guest homes, garages and recreation rooms. And he even has moved unwanted barns as far away as Pennsylvania from Michigan.