DAYTON, Ohio — Along I-70, north of Dayton, a keen eye might notice a change in the scenery.
Where there was once a rustic barn with a fading Ohio logo, there’s now a very green work in progress.
Its new owner, Chris Koehler, said he often has to assuage a few fears. He’s not taking down the 100-year-old barn, he’s preserving it in the hopes he can reopen it by the end of the year as a wedding venue.
Koehler bought the property about three years ago, but he only got the permits to work on it back in March.
Every day, as each piece comes together, he said it starts to feel a little more real.
“The scariest part is looking down through the Coppola hole at the floor,” he said. “That’s the most unnerving thing.”
Koehler is quick to admit this is the biggest project he’s ever undertaken both in size and scope.
He has a background in renovating houses, not walking on the roof of a barn more than 100 feet off the ground.
But Koehler said he and his wife were looking for their next challenge.
And the historic barn fit the bill.
“We don’t want to do the same thing over and over again,” he said. “We flipped houses, we did little ones, we got up to big ones and this is like the next level.”
Koehler said he looked at properties around the Dayton area hoping to find a place with a lot of room and air of romance, the perfect combination for a wedding venue.
“I’ve seen it here my whole life like I’ve seen it since I was a little boy,” he said.
Koehler said he’d pass the barn on his way to his grandparent’s house.
The landmark was his halfway point.
It sticks in traveler’s minds because of its position and logo.
It was one of 88 barns across the state chosen to sport the bicentennial Logo designed to celebrate Ohio’s 200 years of history.
Artist Scott Hagen painted them all in 2002 and 2003, traveling to every county in the state.
Three years ago, Koehler saw a for sale sign out front and the rest is history.
Now, he calls it the Bicentennial Barn.
“We’re trying to keep it like this whole open space and all the old wood,” he said. “Just keep it the same look. We don’t want to ruin any old wood. We want it to look like an old barn.”
Koehler said he wants to keep the barn beautiful, but also add amenities like water, electricity and heat, all while keeping the structure intact enough to last another 100 years.
“We’re just waiting to finish the outside of the building and we’ll put this on as the siding,” he said.
It looks like there’s a lot of work left, but Koehler said the hardest parts are over.
He’s got the right engineers, the right builders, the water main is in and most importantly, Koehler’s project has county approval.
“When we got that building permit, that was like a lot of relief. There was so much relief in our household because that was such a long fight and it felt like the project could have died,” he said.
The fight didn’t end there, though.
The approval came in March, just before the coronavirus shut down.
Koehler said that brought additional delays and financial strains, but now, after everything that’s been done, it’s starting to feel like completion is inevitable.
“People can see that stuff’s happening here and there’s a lot of interest in booking a venue now. It just feels kind of like everything’s rolling,” he said.
The barn is set to open at the end of 2021 and Koehler is booking weddings for 2022.
The next step is the exterior, fixing more wood outside to protect and insulate the building.
To those concerned about what that might do to the logo, Koehler is one step ahead.
He’s in touch with Hagen and while the original logo will be preserved underneath the new siding, Hagen will repaint it over the redone exterior.