New life for SR's historic DeTurk round barn

<p>For nearly 30 years Santa Rosa's only city-owned building with dirt floors and horse stalls has stood empty, but by next year the 119-year-old DeTurk Round Barn could be home to weddings, art shows and community events.</p><p>The City Council today is expected to award a $2.1 million contract to GCCI Inc. of Santa Rosa to renovate the interior of the round barn, one of only two “true round barns” in the state.</p><p>Santa Rosa's other round barn is the 16-sided privately-owned Fountaingrove Round Barn, built in 1899, which also has fallen into disrepair.</p><p>Both are considered round barns, but city Park Project Superintendent Rich Hovden said there is a significant difference “The beauty of the DeTurk is it is a true round barn. It is has no straight edges,” he said.</p><p>The Fountaingrove Round Barn is comprised of 16 discernible sides, he said.</p><p>Assistant City Manager Marc Richardson said renovation of the DeTurk's rustic interior, along with seismic upgrades, could begin as early as next month. Construction will take about a year, he said.</p><p>“It will fantastic, one of the greatest things to happen to our neighborhood,” said Allen Thomas, a leader of the West End Neighborhood where the former horse stable is located.</p><p>The barn just north of Railroad Square was built in 1891 by Isaak DeTurk to house his prized trotter and was operated as a livery stable until 1910.</p><p>That's when the city purchased the Donahue Street property and turned it into its corporation yard, using the round barn as a storage shed for 73 years.</p><p>The building was vacated in 1983 when the city began a $2.5 million cleanup of oil and gasoline contamination of the site. “It really hasn't been utilized for the past 30 years,” Thomas said.</p><p>Efforts to restore the historic luster of the building, which has been granted both federal and state landmark status, began in 1999 when the city spent $150,000 to reroof the two-story structure, replace deteriorated siding, remove lead paint and repaint the exterior.</p><p>The interior remained empty and unchanged except for heavy wooden bracing that was installed “to keep it from falling over” until a full-scale renovation could be undertaken, Richardson said.</p><p>Richardson said the interior will include restrooms, floors, a catering station, storage areas, lighting improvements, a new stairway and elevator to reach the second floor and seismic improvements.</p><p>The project will be financed through a combination of state grants and park development fees.</p><p>“It will be a great place to hold small events,” Richardson said, a place that will be available for rent for weddings, community events, lectures and recreation classes.</p><p>Richardson said events will be restricted to 75 participants, 150 on limited occasions, and the city also will set limits on the serving of alcohol. Both are efforts by the city to control the impact on the historic neighborhood, he said.</p><p>The round barn will become the fourth city-owned building proposed by city officials to become a venue for weddings, a move to generate revenue for the cash-strapped city. The city currently rents out a portion of the new $9.4 million Bennett Valley Golf Course clubhouse to host wedding receptions and recently opened a portion of the Luther Burbank Home & Gardens to host small weddings.</p><p>City officials also have expressed support to allow small weddings at the Church of One Tree of Ripley's Believe it or Not fame once it is refurbished and moved to Heritage Park at the east end of the Prince Memorial Greenway on Santa Rosa Avenue.</p>