Keith Powers Barn, 1886

Ground stable barn with chicken coop, garage, milkhouse, sugarhouse, wagon shed, woodshed. No public access. Was in use for dairying. Built 1886 and modified in the 1950s. Concrete foundation with stud construction frame, covered with barn boards. Gable roof of wood covered with sheet metal. High drive, cupola. Entrance in eaves side.

The Pike Homestead, settled in 1791 on road 46 at the corner of road 47 (now Old Couty Road and Shadow Lake Road), was owned by Frank W. Brown and Jennie (Miller) Brown, his wife, in 1877. In 1919 they sold to Glenn Gilbert Powers and Eva (Page) Powers (parents of Geneva Powers Wright, author of this history). The new barn built in 1886 replaced the old one, which Mr. Brown tore down. It had a full basement used for the manure pit, a stable for cattle, one for horses, a center feed floor, and ample hayloft/bays for hay, and up the high drive wagons were housed between the hay storage. Mr. Powers raised sheep, pigs, and chickens and made maple syrup. After electricity arrived about 1942, a milkhouse was built. Prior to that, a battery-powered generator had been used for electric lights, replacing kerosene lanterns.  Mrs. Wright remembers a De Laval cream separator used during the butter-making years; she used to wrap butter in half-pound or one-pound packages.  Seven children in the Powers family were raised here, some born at home. The farm ownership passed to son Leland Powers and then his son Keith Powers.

More history may be found in County Gazetteer and Directory—Caledonia and Essex 1761–1887 by Hamilton Child, and Successful Vermonters by William N. Jaffrey (Barre, VT, 1904).