Douglas A. Philbrook Red Barn Museum. Photo Courtesy of Coombs Historic Restoration.
Sometimes newer isn’t always better. At least that’s what Stephen Coombs thinks. Coombs owns Coombs Historic Restoration in Sandwich. For over 30 years, he has been restoring old barns, mills and houses into their original condition.
His latest project is the Douglas A. Philbrook Red Barn Museum, opened in 1861 along with the Mount Washington Carriage Road (now called the auto road), which was the first man-made tourist attraction in America. The project involved lifting the museum and taking out the old foundation. Repairs included a water drainage system (to prevent future damage), new structural support posts and finally, a new foundation. The museum houses historic vehicles
and memorabilia.
“The architecture of these buildings is what makes New England beautiful,” says Coombs, who grew up on a farm with an old barn. “There is a lot of rotted wood and mold and filth from 200 years of accumulated dirt, but once you get beyond that and start putting it together again, it’s a different story.”
Coombs mostly restores old barns and has a crew ranging from a few people to seven or eight for the biggest jobs, all of them contractors. Coombs says that his business has the possibility to grow, but he’d rather keep it the way it is now. That is because Coombs likes doing the work himself and holds a high standard for the type of work that they do. “It looks like a lot of work, but it’s a slow process. It’s different than conventional carpentry; you don’t need a lot of people,” he says of restoration work.
Due to the nature of contracting, Coombs’ business has no one set price. However he most commonly works on barns, and costs for repairs for those can range anywhere from $75,000-$150,000. In 2015 Coombs had six jobs. The length of time may be anywhere from months to years due to the sheer size of some of the buildings. Last winter, he took on one of his larger projects, rebuilding an 1820s barn on the site of the Woodshed Restaurant, which burned down in November 2013. Coombs and a team of seven to eight people resurrected the barn from a pile of timbers. The restaurant recently reopened in the barn, and Coombs was there. “It was very rewarding when you get to the end, and it’s a beautiful building,” he says.
Besides historic building restoration, he also offers barn jacking and squaring. This involves lifting the building up and squaring it off so that it is square in all four corners. Other services he offers are dismantling and relocating barns, emergency repairs (cases of roofs collapsing) and complete restoration.
By Joseph Riley of the Young Reporters Project, a partnership between Business NH Magazine and University of NH Manchester.
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