Barnstormer
With primitive tools and an eye on posterity, the 'Barn Doctor' is preserving history — one beam at a time
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Steve Stier, the “Barn Doctor,” hammers a 150-pound support beam in place at Peter DeLoof’s barn in Bridgewater, Mich. Stier restores old barns using traditional tools and construction methods.
Inside MSU professor Dennis Propst’s barn, Stier takes careful measurements to breathe life back into the 19th century timber frame. The Michigan Barn Preservation Network awarded Propst and Stier the barn of the year award.
Doing it the old-fashioned way means using old-fashioned tools. “Part of my preservation ethic is using what some people would call primitive tools, materials and methods,” Stier said.
Steve Stier is trying to keep alive a lost art as he travels from one old, broken down barn to the next. A barn doctor of sorts, he is keeping alive the skills, craftsmanship and knowledge of how they were built, as well as the artifact itself.
“I’ve always liked the idea of doing work that was remarkable,” Stier said. “I like being involved in things that people look at and say ‘wow.’”
That’s what he has done, whether it is keeping a turn-of-the-century barn from falling in on itself or relocating the original timber frame of a barn and reusing it elsewhere.
For more than 20 years Stier has been self-employed as a handyman for hire that specializes in historical preservation. After earning a bachelor’s degree in historical preservation and a Masters degree in industrial arts from Western Michigan University, he went on to work in various capacities from repairing wooden coasting schooners in Maine to teaching middle school.
Now, Stier has a new passion—working with the historic barns throughout Michigan.
“Traditionally, the knowledge and skills that went into building these old buildings that dot the Michigan landscape were passed from person to person,” Stier said.
It’s part of Stier’s preservation ethic that sets him apart from the ordinary builder. He uses old tools, old materials and old methods to do his work. Whether he is using a hand saw to cut through an oak beam or using ropes, poles and manpower to raise the walls of a barn, Stier always seems to be doing it the hard way.
After World War II the American population began a sharp increase. Along with it, the demand for housing and construction increased. According to Stier, what’s called “value engineering” came along and engineered everything to where it is designed to minimums. In other words, it will do what it is supposed to and not a bit more.
“These old red barns are still standing for a reason,” he said. “By throwing away these buildings we are throwing away the material, skill and knowledge, and replacing it with something that is not as high quality, takes less skill to do, doesn’t last as long and is less attractive.”
A day at work for Stier is not a typical day at the office. Everything from falling off ladders to chasing animals out of the barns has afforded Stier with some fond memories.
Far from the days of boundless energy, Stier keeps a pace that most can’t imagine. It is his customers and his environmental ethic that keep him going.
“I’m a resource that is in short supply and I just can’t abandon it at this point. It would leave a lot of people and a lot of buildings hanging—I’d have to turn my back on them,” he said.
“I think what I do is important because on one level it’s conserving natural resources,”
Stier said. “And on another level it is keeping alive the effort and skill that the old family farmers used to live by.
“The hardest thing for me has been to have the confidence to tear into a project without having all the answers.
“Now I have that confidence,” Stier said. “I don’t care what I find, I can fix it."
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