Montana Historical Society Makes Grants for Historic Barn Restoration

Three historic barns in Montana will be restored using $15,000 in grants from the Montana Historical Societyís State Historic Preservation Officeís Rural Property Brick and Mortar Grant program, Society Director Richard Sims said Monday.

The three barns are the J.G. Myllymaki Barn near Belt, the Cue Livery Barn in Melrose, and the Nunberg Barn near Wibaux. All three projects will receive $5,000 a piece as matching support. The funds derive from federal dollars the Historic Preservation Office receives annually from the National Park Service.

"Barns are a difficult property type to maintain," Society Historic Architecture Specialist Pete Brown said. "We receive requests for barn-related grants all the time, and there is a real interest out there for preserving barns and other agriculture-related buildings."

The Society received more than 125 letters of inquiry from barn owners across the state after it announced the program, which was a one-time demonstration project.

"These three barns represent only the top of the haystack," Brown said. "We wanted to include a variety of barn construction traditions and geographical locations, and we wanted to award funding to buildings that are used much as they were historically."

Any businesses, organizations or individuals interested in contributing funds as sponsors for the Society program to restore historic barns and other ag buildings can contact Brown at 406-444-7718.

"We do not have ongoing funds for this sort of thing, and this is a great opportunity for people and organizations to show there support for the history of Montana agriculture," Brown said.

Here are the three barns selected for grants:

Myllymaki Barn – Owned by J.G. Myllymaki and built in 1939 in the Finnish log building tradition, it is part of Korpivaara National Register Historic District, which is made up of Finnish barns along Little Belt Creek in Cascade County.

Cue Livery Barn ñ Owned by Linda Cue and built over the course of the 1880s and 1890s by the Hecla Mining Co. for mules used in their operation near Melrose. It is built using lap-jointed logs and wood frame with board and batten siding.

Nunberg Barn ñ Owned by the Nunberg family and built in 1911 in the classic red, wood frame barn tradition. It has been in the Nunberg family since 1928.