Barn Razing Brings Out Community : San Marcos Residents Want City Council to Save Their Only Landmark

Petition-wielding residents will urge the San Marcos City Council tonight to save the Williams Square Barn, a 42-year-old redwood landmark that served as a regional square-dance mecca during the 1950s and ‘60s.

“It’s the only building in San Marcos that is significant,” said Michael Slavinski, chairman of the nonprofit San Marcos Land Conservancy, which is organizing residents to defend “The Barn,” as it is known. “The city has the money, and The Barn should be preserved.”

The Barn is under siege because it stands in the middle of a future civic and commercial hub that officials hope will make up for the city’s lack of a downtown.

Specifically, The Barn stands on the future extension of San Marcos Boulevard to Mission Road, one feature of the $60-million project planned for the intersection of San Marcos Boulevard and Twin Oaks Valley Road.

City staff members are recommending moving The Barn, or demolishing it and salvaging its famous pecan-wood dance floor and other special features. Bulldozers are already do-si-do-ing ominously around the big red structure, readying the property for another generation of buildings.

Deputy City Manager Paul Malone says The Barn has to go, one way or another, by the first week in September.

“It’s an emotional issue. People are emotionally attached to The Barn,” Malone said. “The question is, how do you balance that against economic considerations?”

Slavinski said about 50 people showed up for a Save the Barn Committee meeting last Tuesday, and launched several petitions defending The Barn. He said at least 100 signatures have been collected.

The city bought The Barn and the six surrounding acres in 1973 for $110,000 from Frances and Fred Williams, a pair of avid square-dancers who built it in 1950 as a center for folk-dance classes and hoedowns.

The Williamses, who still live in San Marcos, chose redwood walls and a durable pecan-wood dance floor, and added wings for a kitchen, dining room and square-dance store. They decorated the walls with ancient saddles, a flag from the War of 1812, bleached cow skulls, old tools and pioneer clothes. The restroom doors said “Heifers” and “Steers.”

Frances Williams, 86, remembers The Barn’s heyday, when 300 people would come in string ties and swirling petticoats for all-night square dances followed by pancake breakfasts.

“You flip pancakes for 300 people, and you’ve done something,” she said.

Back then, dancers came to the barn nearly every night, paying 50 cents admission. But it was the square-dance store that kept The Barn in the black, Williams said, with its ample sales of dancing shoes, petticoats, record albums and copies of the now-defunct Open Squares magazine.

Today, aside from the two wagon-wheel chandeliers, little remains of The Barn’s colorful past. It has a municipal feel now, housing city offices, Jazzercise classes and a soft drink machine. About 25 groups use the building, which accommodates about 72 hours a week of recreation programs. The restrooms say “Men” and “Women.” The caramel-colored pecan floor has lost some of its luster.

“They don’t know how to keep the floor up,” Williams said. “We told ‘em over and over, but they always think they know better.”

One square-dance group, the Escondoces, still uses the dance floor, but the Williams’ founding group, the Silver Dollar Dance Club, is just a memory.

Frances Williams says she won’t be at the City Council meeting when The Barn’s fate is decided.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said. “I enjoyed it for all those years, and I made a lot of friends. But this hassle over it I’m not interested in.”

Tonight, city staff members will recommend four options for dealing with The Barn, including:

* Moving it to Walnut Grove Park 2 miles away at a cost of $550,000.

* Demolishing it at a cost of $52,000, but saving and storing its pecan-wood dance floor and other special features.

* Building a new barn in Walnut Grove Park with special pieces of the old barn for $402,000.

* Building a new barn with parts of the old barn and leasing an industrial park building to house community events until the new city facilities are built. Officials had no cost estimate for that option.