Page 14 - The Hunt - Spring 2022

HOME & GARDEN
By EilEEn Smith DallaBriDa | PhotoS By Jana Bannan
Barn Raising
A soulful, skillful restoration in Cheste
Initially, Erik Kolar didn’t have much use for the big barn on his Chester Springs property. The president and CEO of Patriot Equities in Wayne doesn’t keep dairy cows, and he doesn’t have farm equipment
in need of storage. But he does have a large family and a network of friends and business acquaintances. Kolar is the youngest of
eight siblings, and the barn struck him as
the ideal place to round up kith and kin for large gatherings.
Kolar turned to Malvern’s Period Architecture for the meticulous restoration of the barn. The architect recommended
r County.
Lancaster County’s B&D Builders, a family- owned business that has built and restored barns, equine facilities and high-end homes from Florida to Wyoming. Bringing new
life to the barn was a project close to the hearts of B&D founders Ben Esh and Daniel Glick, whose families have farmed and raised animals for generations. “Pennsylvania barns are disappearing from our landscape at a faster rate than ever before in history,” Glick says. “This owner went all in on the repair and restoration, preserving an almost-natural part of our landscape for the next 100 years.”
Listed on the National Register of Historic
(Clockwise from above) The main indoor gathering area; barrels repurposed as wine racks; the cupola and porch; the courtyard.
Places, Kolar’s house was once owned by Owen J. Roberts, who served as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1930 until his death in 1945. A significant restoration of the home was undertaken by West Chester’s Archer & Buchanan Architecture in 2008.
Constructed from Chester County fieldstone and oak timbers in 1873, the property’s bank barn was built into a hillside, which allows access on two levels. Glick was delighted to find that much of the wood was “very special” white oak, combined with red oak and other species. “Most of the original beams were hand-hewn,” says Glick. “After
12 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2022