Reclaim • Restore • Recreate

LIVING HISTORY

HONORING THE CRAFTSMANSHIP OF OLD

“History in the Making” is more than a clever slogan, it’s a genuine expression of how we view our work at Legacy Barns. We have a deep appreciation for the impressive architecture and cultural importance of the structures that we save and repurpose for our clients – and for future generations – to appreciate.

Whether we’re restoring, selling and relocating an historic barn or performing historically accurate repairs on a structure in the field, we really are creating living history with every customer we serve.

HISTORIC BARN FRAMES

TIMBERWRIGHT SERVICES

Intricate ceiling/roof rafters of Fultonville hay barn

At a very early age, Legacy Barns founder Tim Rau developed a real passion and respect for the historic Dutch and English barns that grace hillside farms where he grew up. Inspired and encouraged by his grandfather (at his historic farm), Tim studied and mastered the nearly lost art involved in restoring these grand structures.

Realizing that without intervention, these barns would continue to deteriorate and disappear from the landscape, Legacy […]

Legacy Barns uses many traditional tools to carve out historically accurate new fittings to replace broken ones on an old timber frame that's being re-purposed.

We specialize in hand-hewn timber frame barns, employing ancient construction techniques to repair, restore and repurpose them. In addition, we use the same methods and materials as our ancestors to craft precise recreations of these magnificent structures.

A timber frame demands of the timber-wright a dedication to margins of tolerance comparable to that of a fine cabinet maker. With an understanding of the attributes of the wood as […]

Restored Barn Raising – Norwich
New Barn Raising – Bethel

LEGACY FILM GALLERY

Broad Axe
Working Stone
Fitting Footings
Setting the Base
Ezra’s Mill
Tim Rau, Timberwright

“It is the durability and permanence, the multigenerational use, the demand of accuracy, the knowing that your work, once complete, will create a building that will outlast its craftsman, that attracts me to the craft of timber framing.”
– Tim Rau

Legacy Barns' Tim Rau sources native timbers from Amish country in Upstate New York for the giant beams he needs to build historically precise barn recreations.

We can bring them back to
their former glory.