Barns Can Be Good For More Than One Thing

Reprinted with permission of Shawn N. Jasper, Commissioner of Agriculture, Markets & Food. Originally printed in the Weekly Market Bulletin, Vol. 99, March 18, 2020

This will be the third time I have written about the Barn Tax Incentive Program, and it won’t be the last. Few things make me sadder than a barn with a hole in its roof. My family can testify to that. The April 15th deadline for applying to your local governing body for the tax credit* is fast approaching. The details of the program established under RSA 79-D can easily be found on-line at NH.Gov, so I won’t go into those details here.

This 18th century Hampton barn was one of the first barns to enter the Historic Barn Incentive Program in 2003.

While we still have a long way to go, to have at least one barn on the program in every community, Effingham, Holderness, Lebanon and Nottingham are the latest communities to participate in the program. There are now 100 communities granting tax credits, to 603 historic agricultural structures. Why is this program important and why are these structures worthy of a special tax credit?

In 2002 the NH Legislature found, “It is hereby declared to be in the public interest to encourage the preservation of historic agricultural structures, which are potentially subject to decay or demolition, thus maintaining the historic rural character of the state’s landscape, sustaining agricultural traditions, and providing an attractive scenic environment for work and recreation of the state’s citizens and visitors.” That’s why!

A local landmark still in agricultural use, this Goffstown 19th century barn has been protected under RSA 79-D since 2009.

This program not only provides a credit for structures, if approved by the governing board, it also provides a credit on the land necessary for the function of the building. The credit on the land can be more important than the credit on the building. Receiving a tax credit, in exchange for a preservation easement, ma only be part of the battle of preserving a structure. The more expensive part of preserving buildings is the physical maintenance of them. The NH Preservation Alliance may also be able to provide guidance to those wishing to save an agricultural structure.

I am sorry to say that in my own hometown of Hudson, there are few significant agricultural structures over 75 years old, and that number seems to be decreasing every year. In Southern NH, it is difficult to justify keeping these structures standing; the land they sit on has become too valuable. It is rare that a barn in a prime location has found an owner with the ability to rehabilitate it for a practical use.

The dairy-turned poultry barn at Commissioner Jasper’s childhood home.

I was only 13 years old when my father went out of the poultry business. It wasn’t long before the rolled roofing on the poultry barns began to blow off. I wanted to roof them. My father asked me, “What for?” I told him that I didn’t know, but that I would figure it out. The first one that I re-roofed is the barn shown here in its prime in the 1930’s. I was probably 17 when I took on the project with a couple of other guys, who were working with me painting the farmhouse. Dad was not happy that I was taking on the project, but he didn’t try to stop me. However, he did make me save all the drip edge and as many nails as I could.

By the time I was 31, I had been in and out of the poultry business myself and had already rehabbed three other poultry barns for commercial use. I started to tackle the “four story” by myself. By the next year Dad had finally come around to my way of thinking and at 70 he began working with me on it. This was really the first time we had enjoyed working with each other. There is another section of the barn not shown in the picture. he and I got back around to finishing that part of the project when he was in his 80’s. We did our last project together when he was 88. That old dairy barn, which has been converted by his father to a poultry barn, seems to have been what really brought us together.

*Editor’s Note: Folks use “credit” and “incentive” to describe the program’s property tax relief.

For a PDF copy detailing the RSA 79-D program click here

To see if your town or city is participating in the RSA 79-D program click here