by Gary Gardiner | Apr 12, 2013
Dairy barn on farm land at Cooper Road and Cleveland Ave.
I’m continuing to visit the farm land along Cooper Road where it passes along Alum Creek and ends at Cleveland Avenue. After a few more changes in the plans presented to the city council most of this land will become a business and apartment complex with a senior care facility at it’s center.
There will be a park along the edge of the creek and green space scattered throughout the complex but the large swaths of hay and crop fields will disappear under concrete, steel and asphalt. When completed almost 25% of the working farm land in Westerville will be gone.
I have not seen the complete plans but have been told they do not include the old barn. I hope I’m wrong. When farm land along Old Westerville Road in Genoa Township was converted to houses the developers kept two barns that today stand as markers of the original use of the land. One is used as a small community center for movies and meetings in the warmer months.
Let’s hope I’m wrong and there is a plan to save the barn.
A Tumblr site with photos of the Cooper Road Farm
by Gary Gardiner | Apr 12, 2013
Dairy barn on farm land at Cooper Road and Cleveland Ave.
I’m continuing to visit the farm land along Cooper Road where it passes along Alum Creek and ends at Cleveland Avenue. After a few more changes in the plans presented to the city council most of this land will become a business and apartment complex with a senior care facility at it’s center.
There will be a park along the edge of the creek and green space scattered throughout the complex but the large swaths of hay and crop fields will disappear under concrete, steel and asphalt. When completed almost 25% of the working farm land in Westerville will be gone.
I have not seen the complete plans but have been told they do not include the old barn. I hope I’m wrong. When farm land along Old Westerville Road in Genoa Township was converted to houses the developers kept two barns that today stand as markers of the original use of the land. One is used as a small community center for movies and meetings in the warmer months.
Let’s hope I’m wrong and there is a plan to save the barn.
A Tumblr site with photos of the Cooper Road Farm
by Gary Gardiner | Mar 31, 2013
Farm house on a hiil in Ohio farm country
There’s a lot of farm country near my daughter’s home north of Johnstown.
About two miles away on the crest of a small ridge sits an old farm house recently refurbished from a condition that showed years of abandonment and disrepair. It now has new siding, roof, a mowed front yard, cars in the garage, and is filled with the sounds of family.
What hasn’t changed is the wonderful perspective I get from the bottom end of the eastern rise of that small hill. The house, garage, and trees make near perfect stencil cut silhouettes against the setting sun and sky almost every time I visit.
The exact shape and color of the sky is always different. Sometimes, depending on the season, the sun sets directly behind the house, its bright orange orb dominating the frame.
Other days, like Easter Sunday, it’s the clouds that make the statement allowing the sun to splash its rays through the cloud edges casting inspirational rays across the land.
And, I’ve been there during rain, snow, corn too tall to see over, and drought so hot that the ground cracked and crops shriveled.
What is common about these moments, about the times I pulled a camera to my face, is the house on a hill. A house that is now a home and much more than a silhouette cutout.
by Gary Gardiner | Mar 31, 2013
Farm house on a hiil in Ohio farm country
There’s a lot of farm country near my daughter’s home north of Johnstown.
About two miles away on the crest of a small ridge sits an old farm house recently refurbished from a condition that showed years of abandonment and disrepair. It now has new siding, roof, a mowed front yard, cars in the garage, and is filled with the sounds of family.
What hasn’t changed is the wonderful perspective I get from the bottom end of the eastern rise of that small hill. The house, garage, and trees make near perfect stencil cut silhouettes against the setting sun and sky almost every time I visit.
The exact shape and color of the sky is always different. Sometimes, depending on the season, the sun sets directly behind the house, its bright orange orb dominating the frame.
Other days, like Easter Sunday, it’s the clouds that make the statement allowing the sun to splash its rays through the cloud edges casting inspirational rays across the land.
And, I’ve been there during rain, snow, corn too tall to see over, and drought so hot that the ground cracked and crops shriveled.
What is common about these moments, about the times I pulled a camera to my face, is the house on a hill. A house that is now a home and much more than a silhouette cutout.
