In 1999 The New Jersey Barn Company disassembled a Dutch barn on the verge of collapse to be rebuilt on the property where the house know as ‘Rockingham’ was about to be moved. ‘Rockingham’ was, in 1783, the last wartime headquarters of George Washington. Now permanently situated near Kingston, NJ, the house had been moved several times.We had no idea then, that fourteen years would pass before all the approvals and budgeting were in place for the barn to be rebuilt. The Nevius barn was originally built at the end of the 18th century as a true, New World Dutch Barn on a site only a few miles removed from Rockingham.
Late in the 19th century it was altered and enlarged by adding a new roof that ran perpendicular to the original. The hybrid Dutch-Anglo frame, after decades of neglect, was in an advanced stage of disrepair. Yet the heavy timber core surprisingly, was largely intact. Rebuilding this frame in the original form would require entirely new sidewalls and all new rafters. In 2013 the salvaged timbers were delivered to our yard and shop in Ringoes for extensive repairs. That Fall, the Nevius Barn was finally standing again.
