Sunday, June 29, a “Barn Raisin’ Barbecue” was held at the Demonstration Garden on Eigleberry between 6th and 7th Streets. This was the first public event by the Save the Miller Red Barn Committee, and it was an obvious success.
The Miller Red Barn is on the “Ranch Site” of Christmas Hill Park, and was scheduled for demolition, but a grass-roots group convinced the City Council to allow a year to investigate the barn’s heritage and condition.
The group strongly believes this barn was built for Henry Miller, the famous “Cattle King”, whose headquarters were at the Bloomfield Ranch south of Gilroy where Highway 101 meets Highway 25. Because building permits were not required for barns at that time, it may never be possible to prove it was built for Miller, but evidence points that way.
The Committee’s first objective is to raise funds to repair the barn’s roof. They are also collecting ideas about potential uses for the barn and surrounding land. Some of my previous blogs in this series featured farm-based parks in Watsonville, Hollister, Santa Cruz, King City, San Jose, Cupertino and Fremont —all of these offer inspirations for using a barn as a center point for community events and interests.
Some have assumed, since the barn has been out of use so long and because the roof has many holes, that the barn was in bad shape. To see for themselves, the Save the Miller Red Barn Committee accepted the pro-bono services of Stuart Scott, a local structural engineer. On June 4, Scott joined Committee members on a City-led tour of the barn’s interior. His official report on that visit confirms the barn’s structure is in very good shape. It was likely built of locally-harvested first-growth redwood, which is very resistant to decay, and it could be quite reasonable to bring it up to modern codes and make it suitable for public use.
Scott Lance, a local artist whose studio is on Monterey Street just north of Gilroy Car Care, donated a beautiful painting of the Miller Barn. He also decided to do a limited run of 25 “giclée” (a special computer-based process for fine-art prints) copies of the painting to be sold, so several Gilroyans will have an opportunity to own a personal copy signed by the artist—three were auctioned at the barbecue. Scott is a very talented artist—samples on his walls show a mastery of styles from Impressionistic to photorealistic—he is also very civic-minded, previously donating an exquisite painting of Gilroy’s 1910 Carnegie Library that hangs in that building, now the Gilroy Museum.
Jeff Raby, who owns Fire 4 Hire, prepared a delicious barbecue featuring steak and marinated chicken, accompanied by corn on the cob, beans, garlic bread, salad, and watermelon. Jeff emphasized he now does all sorts of catering, in addition to his excellent barbecue.
Music for the event was provided by two groups; “Sagebrush”, a local trio of country/bluegrass musicians, kicked things off with toe-tapping tunes that brought to mind the golden days of Gilroy’s legendary KFAT radio station—fitting music for a barn raising.
A live and a silent auction pulled in money for the Miller barn project. Downtown merchants and businesses like Clos La Chance, Fortino’s and Rapazzini Wineries, the Bike Center and Garbo’s Antiques made generous donations of merchandise and services to be auctioned.
the silent auction tent was a center for visiting
Richie Chavarria of Garlic City Auction donated a desk from the old Adams School, it was won by Gilroy’s own John Adams, a descendant of the school’s namesake.
