The severe storm that blew through the area a few weeks ago left calling cards all over the place, including downed trees, power outages and stressed umbrellas. One of its casualties in Woodside may have quietly succumbed to the elements after a century of standing up to them.
The Mathisen barn on town property near the intersection of Woodside and Whiskey Hill roads is now a pile of wood, said Town Manager Susan George in a Jan. 22 report to the Town Council.
“I think that it just decided to lie down,” History Committee chair Thalia Lubin told the Almanac.
The barn was about 15 feet high, may not have had a floor, and had room for maybe two horses, Ms. George said. A tree fell on it a couple of years ago, she said, adding: “What little structural integrity it had originally had long gone.”
She said she noticed something amiss after a Jan. 4 expedition into town with the public works director to look for storm impacts. “Through the windshield wipers, as I peered across the open meadow, I couldn’t see the barn,” she said.
The History Committee had overseen the restoration of the Mathisen farmhouse as a community museum, but “we hadn’t gotten around to restoring the barn,” Ms. Lubin said. “It was going to be a restoration project, but now it’s a reconstruction.”
Bulldozers will not be used to sort through the rubble, Ms. George told the council. A proposal on what to do with the remains may be forthcoming in a few months, she added.
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