Lanesville Heritage Weekend was first celebrated in 1976. John Richert, our founding President and Lanesville High School teacher, sat down with community leaders to discuss how Lanesville could start a festival celebrating the farming heritage of the Lanesville community. Lanesville Heritage Weekend was started so Lanesvillle and surrounding communities could celebrate the great heritage of our small farm town founded in 1807.
A focal point of our festival is the Mail Pouch Tobacco Barn located on the east end of Lanesville. The Mail Pouch Barn and surrounding land was acquired by the Lanesville Heritage Committee in 1989, from Bob Schellenberger. In 1993 the Heritage Committee decided to do a major repainting project and located the last living Mail Pouch Barn painter living in Ohio. His name was Harley Warrick. Harley had recently recovered from a major cancer battle and agreed to spend a week in Lanesville to lead the repainting project.
In 2009, the Lanesville Heritage Committee decided that a major renovation of the Mail Pouch Barn was required. Support beams and sills were repaired or replaced. The committee sought bids from a number of professional historic barn restoration companies. Indiana Log Crafters, an Indiana company specializing in old barn restorations, was selected for the project. The barn siding was completely replaced with western red cedar lumber from California, because of its long durability. Many coats of primer and special paint were used. With the help of video tapes from the 1993 barn repainting project by Harley Warrick, the barn restorer was able to bring the refurbished barn back to the exact original paint scheme using the techniques documented from the 1993 repainting project. The Heritage Mail Pouch Barn will be a land mark that will last for many generations to come.
Stay tuned for lots of additional history to be added in the near future.
