Stowsentry.com - Kaleidoscope: Area pair visits all bicentennial barns

Kaleidoscope by Ken Lahmers, Aurora Advocate Editor

With the exception of the painter and a handful of people who took photographs for documentation purposes and books, few people have seen every one of Ohio's 89 bicentennial barns.

But Aurora boasts a couple who have visited every one of them -- retired pharmacist Ric Mattmuller and his wife Donna. Ric also is a former mayor and Councilman.

While manning a Bluebird Society booth at the Portage County Randolph Fair in 2002, Ric came across a book titled "Ohio's Bicentennial Barns" at a nearby booth, and he bought a copy.

All the bicentennial barns in the book were photographed by B. Miller and text was written by Beth Gorczyca.

With Ric and Donna having been retired for several years -- she formerly worked for the Aurora schools -- they've had plenty of time on their hands, so they thought it would be interesting to visit and photograph all the barns.

In 2003, they went past their first -- Delaware County's -- on a trip to Columbus. On Nov. 3, 2006, they saw their last in Greene County. They keep all their photos in a small album.

A couple who are good friends of the Mattmullers accompanied them on many of their trips. "I used a $200 camera for my photos, whereas my friend had a $1,000 camera!" Ric joked.

Most of the trips to all corners of Ohio required only a day or two, and the two couples visited other historic sights and attractions along the way.

"Ohio is a beautiful state," Donna said. "It's amazing the things you can see if you get away from the beaten path on the back roads."

Ric explained although the barns selected for painting in each county are generally along an interstate or well-traveled state route, some are not easy to find.

"Many times, you can't see the logo from the direction you're going," Ric said. "So you have to turn around and come back on the other side of the road, or get off the main road and try to find the side road the barn is on."

He said the couples drove by the Geauga County barn five times before they realized it was there.

Once, when the couples pulled off a divided highway to take a photo, a state trooper came up behind them to inquire what they were doing.

The jokester that he sometimes can be, Ric acted like he was kicking the tire of his van, and told the trooper he thought something was wrong with the tire.

In Morgan County near McConnelsville, the couples' van got hung up on a rock on a muddy path leading up to the barn.

Ric summoned the farm's owner, who said he would pull out the van with his John Deere tractor. Ric said the late-model tractor was huge.

Ric said most of the bicentennial barns are in excellent shape, but a few have some flaws such as boards missing. Most of the barns date to the late 1800s or early 1900s.

Ric said Sandusky County's is on the fairgrounds. Clark County's is part of an old dairy farm and is now occupied by the Golden Jersey Inn restaurant.

Ric said most of the barn owners were very accommodating, not hostile to visitors. Some enjoyed talking with passers-by, and some erected signs welcoming visitors.

"I think they felt it was an honor to have their barns picked, and they knew there would be a lot of interest," he said.

A tragedy struck Ottawa County's initial selection. One day in 1998 while painter Scott Hagan was finishing up his job, the weather turned ugly.

A tornado swept through the rural area and blew down the barn.

The bicentennial commission had to make another selection.

Ric said Guernsey County's bicentennial logo has since been painted over. In Hardin County after the original logo was painted, the owner fixed up his barn and had the logo repainted.

Although only one barn was selected as each county's official representative, two barns in Logan County were painted with the logo, because the owner of the second paid Hagan for his work.

The bicentennial commission picked Hagan after learning he had painted a few barns in his native Belmont County with logos from sports teams such as the Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Oddly enough, Hagan's home county is the same from which legendary Mail Porch barn painter Harley Warrick hailed. Warrick lived in the small town of Belmont and died in 2000.

Hagan is 32 years old. When he began painting bicentennial barns in 1998, he was 22. All of his barn jobs were completed within two days. Barns selected for the logos were of many styles -- straight, L-shaped and T-shaped.

Some have additions or sheds built onto the original structure.

Some are still used for farming, while some are used for storage.

The roofs range from cambrel (two slopes on each side) to pitched (a gradient of greater than 15 degrees) to gabled (peaked or triangular).

Most of the logos are painted on the ends of the barns, but a few are on the long face. Defiance County's has logos on two ends of the T-shaped building.

The most urbanized barn is in Cuyahoga County. It's a 30-by-40-foot structure painted yellow and located on West 130th Street in Middleburg Heights.

Most of the barns are either white or red. In addition to Cuyahoga County's yellow, a couple of the barns are natural wood.

The standard logo has Ohio in blue script with a star dotting the I. Underneath is a ribbon with the word "bicentennial," and "1803-2003" is either under the ribbon or off to the sides. The outline of the state of Ohio divides the two years on some of the designs.

Some of the logos are painted inside a giant outline of the state. Pike County's script Ohio and bicentennial ribbon are on the end of the barn, while the years are on the side.

I've seen only five of the bicentennial barns in person -- Portage, Summit, Harrison, Tuscarawas and Morgan.

Harrison's is at the County Home on Route 250 between Tappan Lake and Cadiz.

When I was growing up in Tuscarawas County, the bicentennial barn was yellow and inscripted with the owner's name -- C.G. (Cletus) Mutti.

It's visible when traveling northbound on I-77 or old Route 21 from Stone Creek to New Philadelphia.

E-mail: klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155