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Century-old barn now owned by
Nibley
OLD WOOD:
The Morgan barn is at 2800 S. 2800 West St. / Photo
by Kelsey Koenen
By Kelsey Koenen
December 4, 2007 | NIBLEY -- In 1903 Ernest Morgan
and his young family started with the bare minimum;
somehow managing to build an extraordinary farm in Nibley
that the city purchased proudly almost a century later.
The barn wasn't entirely finished with construction
until about 1925 when the owner of Anderson Lumber assisted
Morgan financially to complete the main bay of the barn.
Isaac Smith was hired for the construction.
"It's an historic feature of Nibley city," Larry Anhder,
city manager said.
The barn is located at 2800 S. 800 West and was purchased
from Dee Gibbons who bought it from the Morgan family
years ago. Gibbons still lives in a home adjacent to
the barn.
Historically, the Morgan barn is the first barn ever
to be owned by Nibley city. The council voted unanimously
to buy it for the amount of $200,000. Part of the property
has already been dedicated as open space which helped
it to become more affordable. The council wants to preserve
a lot of this area as open space.
"We haven't heard any negative comments about buying
it, most people are quite enthused about it," Anhder
said.
Parks and Recreation crews have already begun to do
some of the restorative work on the site. Five old tractors
were donated by Del Johnson, Nibley resident to be repaired
and displayed there eventually in front of the barn.
"It's going to take a while to do it, we don't have
the resources to plow into it," Anhder said.
The project could take years to finish. No specific
guidelines for its completion have been made at this
time.
"I don't know what finish means, it could go on and
on and on," Anhder said.
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