PRESS RELEASE

Members of the Ag Museum Committee (from left to right):  George Looby, Chairman, Calvin Neely, Harold Foskett.  Not pictured:  H. Dexter Young.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(April 30, 2007) Woodstock, CT - - The agricultural barn museum located on the grounds of the Woodstock Fair recently received an Award of Merit from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation.  

" This recognition puts the Woodstock Agricultural Society in the forefront of the region- wide effort to preserve and restore old barns. We hope that our efforts will spur other similar groups to undertake projects of a this nature," said museum committee chairman and Woodstock Fair director Dr. George Looby.

Any structure, site or district in the state of Connecticut was eligible to enter the competition. Many of the structural components of the barn are unique such as post and beam construction, and considered worthy of restoration and preservation.

The barn was recently named the Brunn Barn, after the family who owned the barn as part of their Woodstock estate.  Julius Brunn was a New York City businessman who purchased the property straddling route 169, now occupied by the Hyde School and the Woodstock Middle School. When the Brunn line tragically ran out the barn sat idle for many years and then was used as a storage facility, first by Anhurst College and then by the Woodstock Board of Education. 

The Woodstock Agricultural Society purchased the barn from the Town of Woodstock. Lebanon, CT contractor Glen Pianka dismantled the barn and reconstructed it on the fairgrounds.  

The Woodstock Agricultural Society was organized in 1858 and holds the annual Woodstock Fair on Labor Day weekend. The Woodstock Agricultural Society awards scholarships to local graduating seniors from Woodstock Academy.