This past Father’s Day weekend Chris Schellinger spent his Saturday and Sunday doing one of his favorite things, a big project. Specifically, he began the task of disassembling the Undersander barn. The first to come off? The siding. As I helped my dad with the barn on Father’s Day, I couldn’t help but wonder what Joseph Schellinger would think if he knew that his great-great-granddaughter was helping to save and preserve this stunning structure he built so many years ago.

The plan is made, the timbers are cut, and the joinery is in progress.

After nearly 40 years of maple syrup production the syrup operation will finally receive a home worthy of the history, potential and future plans for the home of the Avon Hills Folks School.

In 1889 Joseph Schellinger, recently arrived from Wisconsin, agreed to build a barn for John Undersander. They agreed the barn would be built for $100 and that every evening John would provide the men with a small keg of beer.

Together with the skills of German craftsmen, materials from the just formed Mathew Hall Lumber Company, and beer from the local brewery, the Undersander barn was built.