01/22/2026
If you own an old barn, or know someone who does, please consider joining Ontario Barn Preservation and registering it in YOBS.
You don’t need to save it physically to save its story.
👉 Learn more and register your barn here:
https://www.ontariobarnpreservation.com/barn-study/
IF YOU LOVE OLD BARNS AND PRESERVING RURAL HISTORY PLEASE SHARE THE HECK OUT OF THIS! PLEASE HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD🙏
Everybody loves a good ghost story. How about something even better - a ghost story that turns into a love story? 👻 ❤️
This is probably one of the most amazing projects that I have ever been involved in because it hits really close to home. I know that my dad would be proud of it along with generations before him.
After my dad passed away, I came across an old photograph of our farm. In it stood his barn — a barn that no longer exists. It stopped me in my tracks. That building held so much of our family history, so many quiet moments of work, resilience, and love. Even though the boards and beams were gone, the barn still felt very real to me — a ghost barn.
That photo became the starting point for something incredibly meaningful. With my help, barn whisperer Hugh Fraser and his team at Ontario Barn Preservation (OBP) were able to digitally reconstruct my dad’s old barn through their Your Old Barn Study (YOBS). While the barn can never be physically saved, it has been saved — preserved in the digital world so its story, design, and importance live on for future generations.
OBP’s mandate is to save old barns, and of course the hope is always to save as many as possible. But the reality is we can’t save every barn — and sometimes we shouldn’t. When preservation isn’t practical or possible, documentation becomes preservation. Digitally recording barns allows future barn lovers, historians, and researchers to understand the vital role these buildings played in shaping Ontario.
That’s where YOBS comes in.
OBP currently defines “old” as barns built pre-1961. In 2021, OBP partnered with the University of Guelph to create a secure, confidential online database housed by the university. With guidance from Professor Kim Martin of the History Department, students helped develop a detailed study that allows barn owners to document their own barns — on their own timeline and online.
Why barn owners? Because the people who live and work in these barns every day know them best.
Over the past two years, this “small army” of barn owners has helped record nearly 200 barns so far. A data analysis from May 2024 showed:
• 59% built between 1850–1900
• 24% built between 1900–1949
• 6% built between 1800–1849
And that’s just the beginning. The database captures building styles, sizes, features — but most importantly — photos and stories.
I never imagined my dad’s barn would be studied after it was gone. But here it is, contributing to Ontario’s agricultural history — still standing in a different way.
💛 If you own an old barn, or know someone who does, please consider joining Ontario Barn Preservation and registering it in YOBS.
You don’t need to save it physically to save its story.
👉 Learn more and register your barn here:
https://www.ontariobarnpreservation.com/barn-study/
Because even ghost barns deserve to be remembered.
I highly recommend your check out the cool story of reconstructing my dad’s ghost barn here….
👉 https://www.ontariobarnpreservation.com/2026/01/20/preserving-the-memory-of-paul-mays-old-barn/
