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These Barns Are Made For Music and So Much More
These Barns Are Made For Music and So Much More
By M.J. McAteer
One of the best-kept secrets in the Shenandoah Valley is The Barns at Rose Hill in Berryville, an arts and community center that deserves to be better known, especially for the many live performances that it offers.
The building is a bit hidden, but once spotted, The Barns makes a nice first impression. It’s set in a park amid greenery and trees, and visitors enter across an arched footbridge into a reimagined barn with a massive, red gambrel roof topped with three cupolas. Inside, there’s a tourist information center, classrooms, art galleries and a performance hall.
Last year, the facility offered about 120 different programs, said executive director Martha Reynolds. They included yoga classes, children’s dance, crafting workshops and trivia and game nights, and its art spaces hosted shows by local artists.
The biggest draw is its performance hall, boasting a busy schedule that ranges from jam sessions and open mic and film nights to classical concerts by the likes of prize-winning pianist Brian Gantz. By all accounts, the acoustics in the lofty, beamed hall are excellent. Reynolds is particularly proud of the Barns’ four concert series devoted to classical music, Celtic music, bluegrass, and jazz and the blues. Tickets for most events are a reasonable $25 and bluegrass concerts have been especially popular, partly because of the optional barbecue catered by Jordan Springs Market in Stephenson.
The Barns originally was part of a 100-acre estate that belonged to a Confederate surgeon. By 1964, when then-owner Horace Gilbert Smithy donated it to Berryville, it had dwindled to 3.5 acres, including a mansion, a tenant house and two dairy barns. Smithy’s wish was for the site to be used for “the educational, recreational and cultural benefit of the community.” That took 47 years to happen.
Berryville turned part of the site into Rose Hill Park and wanted to convert the mansion into a library and the barns into a teen center. But the money wasn’t there, and, in 1978, the mansion burned down.
The barns still stood, but in a steadily deteriorating condition. In 2004, with community volunteers--known affectionately as “barn raisers”--providing the heavy lifting, The Barns at Rose Hill nonprofit was formed.
Over six years, the barn raisers finally collected more than $2 million in public and private funding to disassemble sections of the barns and reassemble them as one structure. The overhaul preserved the original roof lines and high ceilings on the upper level and used reclaimed wood from the barn on the interior walls. The original cupolas and weathervanes were restored, and the new centerpiece for the town opened in 2011.
Reynolds has been executive director for a little more than a year, but before that, the Middleburg resident did all the marketing and outreach for the center. “I was the eyes and ears of this place,” she said.
Reynolds had been the cabin coordinator for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, overseeing the use and upkeep of 44 cabins and supervising more than 80 volunteers. That has come in handy at Rose Hill, with a staff of three but about 60 volunteers.
Such a small staff and a no-frills budget doesn’t leave a lot of money for advertising, so The Barns depends heavily on word of mouth to spread the awareness of its existence.
“We’d love to grow,” Reynolds said, “but we need to bring more people in.”
Details: For more information, go to www.barnsofrosehill.org.
