The Demise Of A Barn

To the Editor:

As the heavy, wet inches of snow build up on old roofs that have weathered countless snows, there are unheard creaks and groans. Finally there is one flake too many and a piece of history collapses inward. Only a tumble of weathered boards remain to remind us of days gone by.

The barn at Currituck and Hedge Meadow Road is one of several to succumb this week, and for me a piece of my family history is gone. That barn was built by my great-grandfather Edward Murray.

A native of County Tyrone, Ireland, he came to the United States in 1856 and eventually settled in Brookfield — then known locally as Burrfield. In 1876 he moved with his wife and five children to “Murray Hill,” the home on Currituck Road. Until his death in 1896 at age 63 he farmed the property surrounding the home and now-destroyed barn.

It’s nice to live in the town of my maternal ancestors, to remember the stories my grandmother told of her growing-up years in that old house, but sad to see a part of her world a tumble of ruin on the side of the road.

My hope is to see the present owners be able to rebuild, using as much of the old material as possible, or at least turn the beautiful old barn boards into something new.

Betty Saunders Guarino

167 Walnut Tree Hill Road, Sandy Hook              January 22, 2011