In recent years, Barnes Camp has sat boarded up and vacant at the southern foot of Smugglers’ Notch, across from the entrance to Stowe Mountain Resort.
But soon the old camp will be repurposed as a visitor’s center.
When it was built in 1927, Barnes Camp replaced a circa 1900 logging camp that had burnt down on the same spot. Over the years the camp has served many purposes, according to Seth Jensen of the Lamoille County Planning Commission.
"The building was originally built sort of as a base lodge, back before there was a ski resort," Jensen says. "Back [then], if you wanted to hike Mt. Mansfield or ski down Mt. Mansfield, you were pretty much on your own."
Over the years, the structure has served as a hostel, a gift shop and lodging, Jensen says.
"All kinds of things have been here," he says.
For the past couple decades, the old camp has been used as storage for Stowe Mountain Resort. And Jensen says the next incarnation of Barnes Camp will be a state-run visitor’s center.
"The building was originally built sort of as a base lodge, back before there was a ski resort ... It served as a hostel at one point, it was a gift shop. It's been lodging. All kinds of things have been here." - Seth Jensen, Lamoille County Planning Commission
"A lot of people, both Vermonters and visitors to Vermont, use the Notch," said Jensen. "There’s a lot of really important history here, really important natural resources. There’s not a lot of information about what those are. So part of the idea of the whole Barnes Camp Visitor’s Center is, let’s create a place where people can come, learn more about what’s going on, meet face-to-face with people and then explore the area based upon what their interests are."
The new center will also have restrooms – a welcome addition for the people who hike, ski and climb in Smugglers’ Notch. Project architect Jay White says alternative methods made adding public toilets viable.
"We found that if we actually did composting toilets, we could make it work," said White. "It was too expensive to do it with a sewer and water system."
The historic camp is made of spruce logs and features a large field stone fireplace. White says it’s unusual to find so many original materials still in place.
"Everything in the historic building is original, which is kind of cool because you don’t often find a building, even from 1927, where everything is original, is here," said White. "We are simply exposing some of the original finishes that were still here. And we’re matching what wasn’t here, what had rotted away, with new construction."
"We are simply exposing some of the original finishes that were still here. And we're matching what wasn't here, what had rotted away, with new construction." - Jay White, project architect
Before any renovations started, the old camp was picked up and moved so a cement foundation could be poured. Only the stone fireplace remained, explained Jensen.
"One of the really important features in the interior of the building is a hand-built stone fireplace, which is actually really well in-tact. And we’ve designed the entire foundation to keep that where it is and maintain it," said Jensen.
Now the camp has been moved back to its original location, and part of the restoration work will be rebuilding the old brick chimney. Jensen said even the bricks were made locally.
"The chimney itself was built out of Drury bricks. Drury brick yard was a major brick yard in Essex Junction," said Jensen. "Once we started working on the building we found that having 80 years of Vermont winters really decayed the chimney. The bricks weren’t in good shape. The mortar was pretty much gone. So we needed to rebuild the chimney."
And thanks to some local crowdsourcing, they’ll be able to rebuild the chimney using bricks from the now-defunct Drury brick yard.
"We sent out the word to the local community asking just if people had any Drury bricks they were interested in donating to the project. It was actually a really surprising response," said Jensen. "We ended up having about 500 bricks donated from local people in the community. They’re all Drury bricks, stamped with the company logo. And we’ll be reusing those this spring when we rebuild the chimney."
If all goes as planned, the Barnes Camp Visitor’s Center will open in the spring.
