Reflections On canvas
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Barns are a symbol of the agricultural heritage of California’s Central Valley; they are functional and beautiful, and represent a way of life that is disappearing. Much of the history of a family’s farm began with the building of its barns. The barns in the Knowlton Gallery’s “Rough Sawn” exhibit are at least 80 years old; most are built from redwood, on crude footings with dirt floors. The history of many of these structures will be told at the Lodi exhibit.
The Knowlton Gallery teamed up with the San Joaquin County Historical Society to scout and record barns of the Central California region. Over 30 barns are featured in the exhibit. Many have been repaired and reroofed, and are still in use. Others are sagging and collapsing, yet still retain a unique beauty. These barns were, and still are, used as stables, to store hay and farm equipment, as places where laborers bunk, where walnuts are hulled, and as homes for mice, owls, and memories.
June 30-August 28
Knowlton Gallery
115 South School Street, Lodi
209-368-1523
Time Gone By
Framed by red pomegranates hanging from the nearby tree, the Steinheimer’s barn today is a picturesque symbol of the valley’s agricultural heritage.
Constructed of rough sawn redwood planks, the weathered dairy barn was built along Mettler Road south of Lodi more than 100 years ago. The original owner of the barn is not known, but all the farm buildings including the dairy barn, water tank house, milk shed and chicken house were on the property by 1908.
Max and Barbara Steinheimer bought the property in 1976. They used the barn to house sheep for their daughter’s 4-H projects and the family’s horses. They have developed a family tradition of harvesting pomegranates from the tree that is probably nearly as old as the nearby barn. The family makes big batches of pomegranate jelly every year.
Ferrari Barn
Built in 1912, this barn was originally used as a horse barn in the Linden area. Over the years the property owners’ needs changed, resulting in modifications and additions to the barn that have created the unusual shape seen today in the heavily used structure.
The Anderson family converted the wood barn into a nut hulling facility sometime before the early 1940s. In 1946, the Ferrari Brothers purchased the property. Over the years, additions and improvements were made to the barn. In 1978, two additional dehydrators were installed and the building was remodeled to accommodate this equipment for the family’s walnut business.
Jim and Debbie Ferrari became the sole owners of the property in 1980 and continue to base their walnut operations in the 97-year-old barn.
Sally’s Barn
Tucked behind the Spenker family home, this red painted, redwood plank barn is surrounded by oak trees in an old vine zinfandel vineyard. Fritz Spenker, who immigrated from Germany and settled in Lodi in 1894, built the barn in the early 1900s. It was used as a hay barn and later as a milking barn duirng World War II. Later the barn was used to store wood grape boxes for harvesting grapes in the family’s vineyard.
Fritz’s granddaughter, Sally Spenker, still lives in the family farmhouse and remembers her father sending her to the barn “where the monkeys lived” as punishment when she misbehaved. At first, she was frightened being locked in the barn, but later she learned that it was a fascinating place to be. She found old feeding racks, climbed around the equipment and in the hay, and then had to scamper back and sit by the door and pretend she had been waiting remorsefully when her father returned to let her out.
Barn owls have made their home inside this barn for many years. Throughout the 1990s, the University of California at Davis conducted studies on the owls in this barn. Today, the barn is empty except for the owls that continue to live and breed inside its weathered walls
Selles Barn
This barn has been in the Selles family for three generations. It is a two-story structure that is probably 80 to 90 years old. The inside structure is built with wood, and the outside is covered with tin that is yellowish in color. The barn was used for years as a feed storage room for Selles’ chicken ranch.
The feed was loaded onto a conveyor belt, like the type roofers use for transporting shingles. The belt delivered the feed up to an opening in the top floor of the barn. The feed was dumped through the opening and fell below to the ground inside. There the feed was stored until it was needed for the chickens, which were kept in three other structures nearby on the ranch.
Jessie’s Grove Barn
A yellowed, one-page architect’s simple drawing and a hand-written contract for $877.85 marked the beginning of the big hay barn on Otto Spenker’s ranch, better known today as Jessie’s Grove Winery, west of Lodi.
Otto Spenker built the barn in the summer of 1917, the year after the death of his father, Joseph Spenker, the ranch’s original owner, who immigrated from Germany and settled on the rich soil near Lodi in 1872.
For years and generations, the barn served the ranch where wheat and grapes were grown and dairy cattle and other livestock were raised. Fourth-generation family member Wanda Woock remembered playing in the barn with her brother, Delwin, in the 1940s. They took turns swinging on a rope from the rafters, letting go to land happily in a big pile of hay mounded to dry on the barn floor.
Today, the fifth-generation Spenker family descendents use the barn for storage, and nearby they continue to grow grapes and make their award-winning Jessie’s Grove wines.
The Knowlton Gallery teamed up with the San Joaquin County Historical Society to scout and record barns of the Central California region. Over 30 barns are featured in the exhibit. Many have been repaired and reroofed, and are still in use. Others are sagging and collapsing, yet still retain a unique beauty. These barns were, and still are, used as stables, to store hay and farm equipment, as places where laborers bunk, where walnuts are hulled, and as homes for mice, owls, and memories.
June 30-August 28
Knowlton Gallery
115 South School Street, Lodi
209-368-1523
Time Gone By
Framed by red pomegranates hanging from the nearby tree, the Steinheimer’s barn today is a picturesque symbol of the valley’s agricultural heritage.
Constructed of rough sawn redwood planks, the weathered dairy barn was built along Mettler Road south of Lodi more than 100 years ago. The original owner of the barn is not known, but all the farm buildings including the dairy barn, water tank house, milk shed and chicken house were on the property by 1908.
Max and Barbara Steinheimer bought the property in 1976. They used the barn to house sheep for their daughter’s 4-H projects and the family’s horses. They have developed a family tradition of harvesting pomegranates from the tree that is probably nearly as old as the nearby barn. The family makes big batches of pomegranate jelly every year.
Ferrari Barn
Built in 1912, this barn was originally used as a horse barn in the Linden area. Over the years the property owners’ needs changed, resulting in modifications and additions to the barn that have created the unusual shape seen today in the heavily used structure.
The Anderson family converted the wood barn into a nut hulling facility sometime before the early 1940s. In 1946, the Ferrari Brothers purchased the property. Over the years, additions and improvements were made to the barn. In 1978, two additional dehydrators were installed and the building was remodeled to accommodate this equipment for the family’s walnut business.
Jim and Debbie Ferrari became the sole owners of the property in 1980 and continue to base their walnut operations in the 97-year-old barn.
Sally’s Barn
Tucked behind the Spenker family home, this red painted, redwood plank barn is surrounded by oak trees in an old vine zinfandel vineyard. Fritz Spenker, who immigrated from Germany and settled in Lodi in 1894, built the barn in the early 1900s. It was used as a hay barn and later as a milking barn duirng World War II. Later the barn was used to store wood grape boxes for harvesting grapes in the family’s vineyard.
Fritz’s granddaughter, Sally Spenker, still lives in the family farmhouse and remembers her father sending her to the barn “where the monkeys lived” as punishment when she misbehaved. At first, she was frightened being locked in the barn, but later she learned that it was a fascinating place to be. She found old feeding racks, climbed around the equipment and in the hay, and then had to scamper back and sit by the door and pretend she had been waiting remorsefully when her father returned to let her out.
Barn owls have made their home inside this barn for many years. Throughout the 1990s, the University of California at Davis conducted studies on the owls in this barn. Today, the barn is empty except for the owls that continue to live and breed inside its weathered walls
Selles Barn
This barn has been in the Selles family for three generations. It is a two-story structure that is probably 80 to 90 years old. The inside structure is built with wood, and the outside is covered with tin that is yellowish in color. The barn was used for years as a feed storage room for Selles’ chicken ranch.
The feed was loaded onto a conveyor belt, like the type roofers use for transporting shingles. The belt delivered the feed up to an opening in the top floor of the barn. The feed was dumped through the opening and fell below to the ground inside. There the feed was stored until it was needed for the chickens, which were kept in three other structures nearby on the ranch.
Jessie’s Grove Barn
A yellowed, one-page architect’s simple drawing and a hand-written contract for $877.85 marked the beginning of the big hay barn on Otto Spenker’s ranch, better known today as Jessie’s Grove Winery, west of Lodi.
Otto Spenker built the barn in the summer of 1917, the year after the death of his father, Joseph Spenker, the ranch’s original owner, who immigrated from Germany and settled on the rich soil near Lodi in 1872.
For years and generations, the barn served the ranch where wheat and grapes were grown and dairy cattle and other livestock were raised. Fourth-generation family member Wanda Woock remembered playing in the barn with her brother, Delwin, in the 1940s. They took turns swinging on a rope from the rafters, letting go to land happily in a big pile of hay mounded to dry on the barn floor.
Today, the fifth-generation Spenker family descendents use the barn for storage, and nearby they continue to grow grapes and make their award-winning Jessie’s Grove wines.