The barn, built in 1933 by Bill and Anna Johnson, shows evidence of expert carpentry and incorporates used materials. The barn lumber is a mix of sizes representing almost all the dimensions used from the 1880s to the present. Bill Johnson was a logger and operated a small farm on this property, and he lived with his wife in the Craftsman style house across Evans Creek.
The barn was built as a small dairy facility. The cows were milked in the south part of the barn’s first floor. The south wall and the ceiling are finished in tongue-and-groove cedar to provide a more sanitary facility. This area was whitewashed for cleanliness. The structure in the center of the first floor is the manger for cow feeding.
The loft is clear story—entirely free of posts to allow easy transport of loose hay into the loft for storage. The hay was hauled from the fields to the east end of the barn where the large loft door was opened. The trolley on the rail at the peak of the loft was run to the east end of the barn. Large grappling hooks were lowered and hooked into the wagon load of hay. The hooks and hay were hoisted with the trolley ropes and then the trolley and hay were pulled along the trolley rail to the west end of the barn, where the hay was lowered for storage in the loft. During the winter, the hay was thrown down through trap doors into the manger below for the cows to eat.
The cows’ milk was stored in the small building at the northeast corner of the barn, called the milkhouse. The milk was stored in cans partially submerged in water in the trough in the floor along the north side of the milk shed. Water for cooling the milk was piped from a creek and spring in the hillside to the south of NE 50th Street.
Leslie and Louise Larson purchased the property in 1956. The Larsons raised cucumbers on the property for sale to Farmans pickle plant in Enumclaw. In 1960, the Larsons sold the house and part of the property, including the barn, to Louis Malchiodi and his wife who started a sheep-raising operation and housed the sheep in the barn. In 1976 the property was acquired by Dr. David Mcintyre and his wife, Marsha. David and Marsha, along with their sons, Chuck and Taggard Ribary, raised sheep here and specialized in the growing of spring lambs from 1976 until approximately 1983.
