Green Pastures Farm manager George Crosthwait looks at the barn damaged during a February wind storm. Demolition will begin Thursday after a permit is pulled from the city. BHP Photo.

Rebuilding probable, but not certain
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page exclusive
The city’s second-most famous landmark after the WSM tower is coming down.

Farm manager George Crosthwait and barn builder Mark Burke discuss the demolition on Wednesday.

Crosthwait hopes that boards like these inside the barn can be salvaged and repurposed.

Even before a wind storm damaged it, the 1930s barn that serves as a frame for the holiday Nativity mural,  was deteriorating.

The Turner barn, visible near the intersection of Franklin Road and Murray Lane, will be dismantled starting today. The old barn, built in the 1930s, was damaged beyond repair by strong winds on Feb. 25.

The barn’s sole use since former Dollar General CEO Cal Turner Jr. and his wife Margaret bought the farmland about 15 years ago is to serve as a base to the hand-painted Nativity mural they commissioned to grace the rural December skyline each Christmas season.

Farm manager George Crosthwait said the family is working with the city to determine how and if it can be rebuilt. Though water from the Little Harpeth River never reached the structure during last May’s devastating floods, Crosthwait said it is officially in the FEMA floodplain. The cost of rebuilding coupled with building restrictions may ultimately determine what, if anything, will replace it. Relocating it outside of the floodplain is an option, but Crosthwait said the concrete silo that plays a huge part of the overall visual cannot be moved.

Mark Burke, a local barn builder, will oversee the dismantling of the extremely unstable structure.

“We want to be safe about it,” Burke said when visiting the site Wednesday afternoon. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Burke and Crosthwait said there are several options for building a new barn. One involves building it on stilts to meet current FEMA standards. Crosthwait said he hopes a compromise can be worked out since the barn is used only 30 days a year, though it's an important part of the city's landscape year round.

Originally built as a “loafing barn,” Crosthwait explained that square bales of hay were once stored in the loft, then pushed down to the mangers below so grazing cattle could eat when they saw fit. It has not served any farm purpose for years.

Though he easily shook the rotted wood beams on the barn’s exterior, he also pointed out the many boards inside that can be salvaged.

Much like the historic Bur Oak tree that fell in front of the Brentwood Library last year, Crosthwait said, “If something can be made out of this wood, it’s like the barn lives on.”

Crosthwait grew up in Brentwood, first on a farm off Old Hickory Boulevard then later in the nearby Meadowlake subdivision. Today he lives on the farm with his wife Dorcas, who works for Margaret Turner.

“I’ve known this farm all my life. We used to fox hunt here,” he said of Green Pastures, once owned by the Houghland family and the first home to the famed Hillsboro Hounds kennels.

“There’s no piece of land like this anywhere in Tennessee and I’m lucky to be part of it,” Crosthwait noted Wednesday. He admitted however, that he did not understand the depth of attachment locals had for the barn until Feb. 26, when daylight exposed the brutal damage that had occurred to it overnight.

“I had no idea this barn was so important to the people,” he said.

The Turners bought the 168-acre Green Pastures estate and moved into the c. 1840 antebellum home in the early 1990s. They purchased the adjoining 411 acres later when it became available. They now also have a home in Franklin.