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One of the oldest buildings in San Ramon has received some much-needed upgrades to its infrastructure and image.
Coinciding with International Museum Day, San Ramon’s 16-acre Forest Home Farms celebrated the completion of a series of renovations made to its Old Barn — constructed sometime between 1850 and 1852 — with a special reopening of the building for residents on Saturday afternoon.
“We started basically from the bottom up with renovations,” said Mary Ann Simmons, recreation supervisor of the city’s Parks and Community Services Department.
The renovations included a new roof, building foundation, an electrical system, construction of a hayloft, installation of a decomposed granite walking path around the building, historic restoration of boards and materials, and other aesthetic improvements with various structural upgrades, according to a city staff report from April 10.
Work began on the Forest Home Farms Old Barn Project in May 2016 by HM Construction Inc., and was completed under budget for $627,598.
“The structure was also retrofitted for earthquake and wind resistance,” Simmons said, adding that it is also now ADA accessible.
A large part of the funding for the renovations was provided by the San Ramon Historical Foundation, who have been a partner and financial backer of Forest Home Farms for many years.
Plans for a new visitors center is currently under design and is expected to be installed in time for the next school year. The visitors center will be outfitted with displays and interpretive panels that explore the lives of the original farm owners as well as the history of the barn itself.
Simmons said the project organizers had a strong desire to maintain the authenticity of the barn, but encountered problems with the building’s rotten wood, which made the structure unstable. Organizers found a clever solution by transplanting wood from another historic California barn.
“A lot of the rotten wood was removed, we saved as much of the original wood as we could…and we actually got some replacement wood from a barn of the same age in Sacramento that was being taken down,” Simmons said. “We used that to supplement what we didn’t have enough of, so it really kept the character of the barn.”
The barn is still waiting on some finishing touches from a contractor, as well as the completion of the visitors center displays, so it will most likely be closed down for the majority of the summer, but is expected to be completed by the time the new school year comes around.
Forest Home Farms, 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd., is free and open every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It offers a wide variety of educational activities showcasing what farm life was like in the 1850s, from tin punching to leather working to corn shucking; the farm even has a mechanical cow to teach visitors how to milk a cow.
In 2002, the farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources.
“It’s a kick,” Simmons said.
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The old barn will be closed for most of the summer, but is expected to fully reopen in time for the beginning of the next school year. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan) -
Construction teams kept as much of the old barn’s original wood as possible. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan) -
The old barn has received many modern upgrades and is now ADA accessible. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan) -
Formerly a horse barn, the old barn was transitioned to equipment storage when disease killed off the herd and the farm switched to using tractors. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan) -
Forest Home Farms offers a wide variety of displays and activities showing what life was like in the 1850s. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan) -
In 2002 the farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan) -
The site of the future visitors center inside the old barn. As shown above, the room has hard floor as opposed to dirt. (Photo by Ryan J. Degan)
