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News Release RI Department of Environmental Management 235 Promenade Street, Providence, RI 02908 (401) 222-2771 TDD/(401) 222-4462
DEM ANNOUNCES REPLACEMENT OF DILAPIDATED SILOS AT DAME FARM AS MEASURE TO PRESERVE HISTORICAL FAMILY FARMS FOR FUTURE PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management announces that as part of its efforts to preserve historical family farms for the future, it is in the final stages of replacing the two dairy silos at Dame Farm in Johnston.Dame Farm, owned by DEM, is a working vegetable farm that has operated as a family farm since 1786 and continues to be operated by the Dame family that purchased it from the Steere Family in 1890. The farm buildings and their relationship to the natural landscape reflect in size, style, and location the numerous successful dairy farms that were found throughout Rhode Island in earlier times. The farm building architecture and barnyard represents an intact example of the family farm that has been steadily disappearing from New England over the last 50 years. The two original vertical silos that were constructed in the mid-1900s and used to store winter feed for the dairy herd at the time were a significant element of the barnyard working landscape, but had become dilapidated over time. Although they had no functional use to a modern vegetable farming operation, their presence has been historically interesting and an important architectural element of the farm. With a $53,000 grant from The Champlin Foundations, supplemented by $20,000 in state preservation bond funds, DEM contracted with Mac Hyney of Fort Plain, New York to demolish and remove rotted staves and deteriorated hoops from the original silos, and reconstruct them exactly, using new materials. Hyney is one of the very few contractors in the Northeast that continues to build and repair wooden stave farm silos, and has been doing such work for at least 30 years. Hyney did much of the preliminary work of cutting and shaping the southern yellow pine timbers in his New York workshop. At Dame Farm, after removing the old silos, V-base anchor bolts were screwed into the foundation, each secured by a heavy rod. The wooden silos were pre-drilled or pinned, using a steel doweling system. After the silo shells were erected which took less than two weeks and encircled by metal hoops, gambrel roofs were added. As a finishing touch, the new silos are currently being painted with two coats of barn red. The Dame Family Farm buildings, on Brown Avenue in Johnston, have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and restored to the period in which they were built. The farm is a living museum, open to the public and dedicated to the preservation of the rural way of life. Additional information about the farm can be found online at http://www.riparks.com/damefarm.htm. -30- |
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