Making Lunch at the Dairy Barn in Romney: A Saving Historic Places Grant Success Story

Did you ever grow your own school lunch? Before the 1950’s, students across West Virginia helped to farm the produce that went into their school lunches. The Dairy Barn in Romney is one of the last standing examples of this practice. This barn in particular served the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and the students took part in caring for the livestock and producing the milk that would go with their lunches. When the days of students growing their own lunch passed into history, the barn fell into disuse. Eventually, the roof threatened to collapse at any minute and destroy a vital source of local and state memory. Thanks in part to a $60,000 Saving Historic Places Grant from the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, the Dairy Barn will be preserved for generations to come.

The Dairy Barn prior to restoration work.

Another pre-restoration photo showing extensive roof damage.

Recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Dairy Barn is a stunning example of agricultural architecture from the early 20th century. Built at the end of the 1920’s with vivid red siding, it looks almost too much like a farm building. School staff and students with disabilities handled over 60 cows housed in the barn. This created lasting memories for students who help share the history of Romney to this very day. Yet by 1951, it made more economic sense for the schools to buy food produced by more efficient industrial farms rather than grow their own produce.
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The barn saw infrequent use after the 50’s. When severe flooding occurred in 1985, the barn acted as a depot to store and distribute donated furniture and other supplies to flood victims. By the year 2000, the building fell into almost complete neglect. A 2022 structural survey suggested an inevitable roof collapse by the end of the year. This prompted the Town of Romney to seek funding to repair the roof and reinforce its structural integrity. Their goal was to preserve the memory of “the Barn’s centrality to the community over the last century.

Progress! Roof repairs prevented collapse.

The historic Dairy Barn is on its way to adaptive reuse.

In the middle of 2023, that work is almost complete. Thanks to a variety of funding including the Saving Historic Places Grant from PAWV, the roof did not collapse, and it is in better shape than ever. Although the Barn’s ultimate form is still in the planning stages, a number of possibilities have opened up. Because of the building’s large size, the town intends for the barn to become a multi-use facility, potentially becoming an art gallery, small business exhibit space, museum center, restaurant, and more.

Many people and organizations support the project, and a common thread through that support is to preserve the history of people with disabilities and the state. The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind is deeply integrated into the community, with the Dairy Barn central to the community’s memory. It continues operations to this day as a part of the West Virginia school system and an important piece of its history could have been lost. Yet the Dairy Barn in Romney was not totally unique. Barns like this are an almost lost feature of West Virginia history. The people of Romney took a chance and are saving not only their own history, but the history and culture of the state.