Krannert/Normandy Farms Barn moved across 38th St.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

(note: this barn was originally located near Traders Point in the southwest corner of West 79th Street and Marsh Road on the Normandy Farms Estate developed by Herman Krannert and now owned by the Kleinops family. In 1998 they donated it to Indiana State Fairgrounds. At that time it was meticulously disassembled, bad wood was discarded and replaced with new wood and then the post and beam structure was reassembled on the south side of East 38th. Yesterday it was picked up and moved across the street.)
March 25, 2008
Dairy barn moves to state fairgrounds
Traffic on 38th Street near the Indiana State Fairgrounds came to a halt Monday morning as a lumbering green and white dairy barn crossed the road.
The dairy barn that once sat across from the fariground’s main entrance was jacked up, put on wheels and moved across East 38th Street about 9 a.m. to a new location on the north side of the fairgrounds, spokesman Andy Klotz said.
It took about four hours to get the barn to its new location.
The Normandy Barn will become part of the fairgrounds’ agriculture education program dubbed “The State’s Largest Classroom,” Klotz said.
The space that the barn vacates will be used for parking.
The State Fair Commission is paying $72,500 to Wolfe House Movers of Indiana to relocate the barn next to the State Fair’s Pioneer Village. Edwards-Rigdon Construction of Danville will be paid $498,000 to prepare the barn for the move and hook up utilities after it’s done.
The milking barn, built in the 1930s on the Pike Township farm of former industrialist Herman Krannert, was disassembled and rebuilt on East 38th Street in 1998.
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About Ross Reller

I am pleased you have expressed interest in learning more about the historic Traders Point area in Indianapolis, Indiana. From 1980 to 1982 I was employed in the PR department at Conner Prairie Museum in Hamilton County. There I learned about William Conner, an important figure in Indiana's pioneer days. A decade later I became interested in the history of the Traders Point area and was surprised to learn that William Conner had been the first land owner in the area. In 1823 he acquired, through the Federal land office in Brookville, a patent for an 80 acre tract carved by Eagle Creek and an Indian trail that was about to be named the first toll roadway through the township (Lafayette Road). Thirty years later a village took shape within this tract. A grain mill on the creek, houses, churches, stores, restaurants, and two gas stations would take shape here in the creek valley hamlet of Traders Point. By 1962 all improvements (except a farmer's co-op) had been removed by the Indianapolis Flood Control Board to make way for Interstate 65 and a new reservoir. This blog is dedicated to preserving evidence of this historic area but I will occasionally use it to discuss related topics. To activate this follow, simply click the confirm button below. If you don't want to follow, ignore this message and we'll never bother you again. I am also a member of the Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery, a non profit association still selling burial plots for those who would like to spend all eternity in Traders Point, and I am an officer in the Pike Township Historical Society and the Traders Point Association of Neighborhoods.
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