Past Projects

A crowd estimated at 70,000 people from across the country came to Frazeysburg, Ohio, Labor Day weekend to attend a barn raising held by the Longaberger® Co. One of Ohio’s largest barns, the 12,000 square foot barn was originally built by Col. George Crawford for his horse trading business in Newark, Ohio in 1890 and was donated by the Colonel’s grandson Bert Crawford. It will be reborn as a museum on the site of the Longaberger Homestead™, a complex of shops and restaurants located adjacent to the Manufacturing Campus and scheduled to be completed in 1999. This event was part of the company’s 25th Anniversary celebration.

Historic Barn

The 90’ x 54’ barn was dismantled, and its timbers numbered and graded. Nine Guild members, led by Curtis Milton, arrived in June to repair and replace timbers from the barn. About 60 percent of the timbers from the original barn were salvaged, according to Rudy Christian of Christian & Son. Rudy and the Longaberger Construction Division oversaw the project. A crew of about 35 people from Longaberger's Construction Division plus as many timber framers all joined to raise six bents of the barn’s original section on Saturday and Sunday of the Labor Day weekend. Work continued the following week with the assistance of a crane to finish the timber frame structure, which includes an additional 50’ x 54’ section that extends the original barn plus a 40’ x 108’ section perpendicular to the main building.

The barn will house a museum dedicated to the history of the Crawford family. Col. Crawford was responsible for importing, exporting, training and selling more than 50,000 horses between 1890 and 1915. As a tribute to the fine Belgian and Percheron stock introduced to the Midwest by the Crawford family, a draft team of Percherons was used for horse power during the raising of the bents.

Swarms of Collectors

The barn raising actually served as a backdrop to the crowds of people who sat in traffic for hours on the two-lane road into the site, then waited in line for up to four hours in the blazing hot sun to get their hands on one of the Longaberger commemorative baskets. Costing about $60 each, the baskets were available only to people attending the event. When the gates opened at 8 a.m. Saturday, a stream of folks sprinted, trotted, and ran to the retail area to get one of the 900 limited edition glass horses available for sale. They sold out in the first five minutes. Throughout the morning, as more and more people arrived, the line for their prized baskets grew longer and longer, till it snaked back and forth across the field; by mid-morning, the Longaberger Co. offered vouchers to people standing in line so they could be mailed their baskets. Attendance that day numbered more than 40,000 people.

The phenomenal attendance at the event resulted in record sales of T-shirts and other Guild merchandise. Behind the tent, Guild volunteers led by John MacFarland did hewing, riving and peg making demonstrations, and worked on cutting a 16’ x 20’ timber frame pavilion; plans are for Longaberger to donate it to a state park for possible use as a shelter. This continues the Guild tradition of leaving behind community buildings wherever they gather to work.

There are numerous people who deserve credit for the success of this event: to Bert Crawford and the entire Crawford family for their generous donation that made the whole event possible; to Rudy Christian, Laura Saeger, Carson Christian and Curtis Milton for all their work, planning and attention to detail. Thanks to Anita Rector, who planned the event, Greg Moore, construction supervisor, and the entire Longaberger staff for the wonderful support that they supplied. None of the volunteers and framers went hungry, and the ample supplies of water and other liquids did a lot to mitigate the hot, dusty conditions.

Our appreciation extends to Greg Moore and Steve Thomas of the Longaberger Construction Division who gave us a work space and installed a telephone line by which we could upload digital photos throughout the four days we were there. The goal was not only to let others know what they were missing, but also more importantly to show Bert Crawford that his lifelong dream was being realized. Joel McCarty of the Guild visited with him Saturday morning at the hospital (then spent the afternoon in traffic to return to the site).