Mark Bowe
APPEARING FEBRUARY 23
By STEVE STEPHENS
Dispatch Media Group
The beautiful, rustic barns of the 19th century have long marked the progress of American pioneers across the continent. Many were demolished or burned, though, as changing agricultural practices made the barns obsolete.
But recently, more and more people have become aware of their historic and architectural value. And people such as Mark Bowe have made it their mission to save as much of the lovely old structures as they can.
Bowe, the owner of barn-reclamation company Barnwood Living and the star of the DIY Network series “Barnwood Builders”, will appear Feb. 23 at the Dispatch Spring Home & Garden Show at the Ohio Expo Center.
“A lot of people have questions about the television show, and I will give them straight, honest answers,” Bowe said by phone from his West Virginia office.
“We’re going to allot time for pictures, autographs and hopefully a lot of laughs.”
Before starting his business, Bowe worked in a coal mine.
“I was actually underground when a guy asked me to help him tear down an old building. I made $1,700 from the old wood.”
Inspired, Bowe quit the mine and started an antique-log company.
“Then I went broke and went back to the coal mine.”
But his second attempt has resulted in a thriving business that includes a popular showroom in White Sulphur Springs as well as a measure of television fame.
Bowe, 49, has a simple formula for success: “Work hard, be kind and take pride.
“If you do those three things, you can be successful in life. That’s what we do and it’s worked out well. And it works in any profession.”
The Buckeye State “has some of the best barns we’ve ever seen,” Bowe said.
“There’s an amazing stretch between Mansfield and Massillon. A lot of barns were built on that fertile soil, and we’ve spent a lot of time there.”
Visitors to the Home & Garden Show will get a look at some of that great Ohio barn wood at the Adirondack fishing lodge exhibit, constructed by the Mt. Vernon Barn Co., another company that rebuilds old barns and repurposes old barn wood.
The lodge “will be made with hand-hewn reclaimed timbers from the early- to mid-1800s,” said company president Doug Morgan.
The wood is from a barn taken down last year in the Mount Vernon area, Morgan said.
Old barns “are like works of art, handmade sculptures,” he said.
“I used to get upset when I saw an old barn that was falling into disrepair, until I talked to the farmers. The modern pole barn is a lot more practical for modern agricultural usage. You can’t blame farmers for not maintaining structures that won’t pay their own way.”
But now the wood from the old barns has become a popular material for construction or remodeling.
“A lot of people want to buy things that have a story and are a part of history,” Bowe said.
Using old barn wood “makes their home place more than something to use just for shelter, but a real home, made with real materials that had their own unique life before you reused them,” he said.
So businesses such as Bowe’s and Morgan’s buy the old barns, dismantling them to rebuild them elsewhere, or to use the beautiful wood in new projects.
“I feel like we’re doing something important in saving these structures for our children and grandchildren,” Morgan said.
“These barns are the last vestiges of first growth forest that we have left; magnificent white oak, chestnut, beech.”
Morgan, 63, is also a practicing attorney.
“But if I can have a legacy, I’d rather it be: ’He saved 100 great Ohio barns.’”
