The mistake is to make a big deal out of Hahnewald barn.
Hey, guess what, Eagle County has a historical society, and Kathy Heicher wants you to believe that one barn will stop “several thousand visitors annually” from driving to Eagle in her Feb. 8 column, “Make no mistake, Hahnewald barn is historically significant.” Hey Kathy, I get it, we need to protect our history so we can learn from it. My question is, why is this barn significant? You said it “represents an important aspect of local history.” So just because the barn was around when lettuce was our major export, cattle were on the mountain instead of skiers, and prospectors were hunting for silver and gold, that means that we have to spend 6.8 million on moving it and then refurbishing it?
If in your column, you had said that the “experimental farm” days and the “farmer’s day exhibits” were located at the Hahnewald barn and you had pictures to back it up, I might reconsider my position on saving it. If you have an agreement in 1912 that was signed in the Hahnewald barn to discuss ways to clean up the Gilman mine site, that might be a cool thing to display in the annals of history. However, no one has told me anything interesting about this barn, besides it is old.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love history. My major in college was history, so I get that we need to preserve what we have. But come on, this is a barn that has been used for storage for the last how many years? Please, let us tear down this barn, use the wood for deed-restricted housing, or let the names that are “familiar in the community like Metcalf, Hahnewald, Kroelling and Nottingham” pay for it.
Avon doesn’t need a soul to establish itself, it needs a workforce that can afford to pay rent here. And no offense to Eagle, but I would rather drive up there to see an old building than live there and drive to Vail to work every day.
Mike Spaid
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