Built in 1927, former Point dairy barn being restored

A nearly 100-year-old barn in Point Roberts is being brought back to life with the help of a grant from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

The barn, built in 1927, needed extensive reframing on its east side.  

Cara and Martin Hogan, its current owners, applied for the restoration money in 2025 — catching a grant cycle from the state agency, also known as DAHP, that opens only every two to three years. But before they could apply, the barn had to receive state historic registration, which it did on Sept. 23. 

However, that left just a few weeks before the grant application was due in mid-October. 

To apply, Cara Hogan had to come up with a project plan, which posed a challenge due to the barn’s location. 

“I am not a builder, engineer or an architect. To write a project proposal I needed help. At first I used the contact list that DAHP provides of contractors who restore barns,” Hogan said. “However, although I received many nice replies, nobody wanted to come to Point Roberts.”

Then someone put Hogan in contact with Ken Kirby.

“Ken is a local contractor who recently moved to Point Roberts,” Hogan said. “He was not only keen to help me with the grant application, he also had previous barn restoration experience. It was too good to be true.”

The matching grant, for $37,500 of the roughly $90,000 restoration, was approved in mid-December. 

“Once the grant contract was signed at the end of April 2026, Ken was able to get started and he has been doing amazing work,” Hogan said.

The project involved stabilizing the structure and restoring the exterior.

“We replaced the entire sill plate of the barn along with the framing on the east side. There is also a foundation repair, which Ken and a couple helpers have completed,” Hogan said. 

Exterior restoration meant replacing siding that was too damaged to salvage and restoring all the windows and doors, according to Hogan.

Supplies for the project, including Dutch cove lap siding, were sourced through Nielson’s Building Center.

The Hogans will put up a sign marking the historical barn, as part of the grant conditions, and they also will work with Eric Lieffering to create a public path to the barn from Tyee Drive, so the public can view it.  

The barn was originally built by Ben and Runa Thordarson, who owned Ben’s Store, in 1927. 

The family used to keep dairy cows, bottle milk and cream, and sell it to Canadian tourists who were camping on the beaches, according to a 1990s interview with Hilda Castellano, the Thordarsons’ daughter, that was posted on Point Roberts TV on YouTube. Castellano remembered delivering the milk in her father’s ’27 Chevy truck.

Hogan’s grandparents bought the property in 1987. Hogan said her grandfather “put a metal roof on the barn, which is probably what preserved it this long.” 

Hogan was grateful her grandfather had put on the mental roof, because the metal roof is usually the first step in preserving and restoring these barns. 

“Most of the grant applications, the grant is used to put on the metal roof,” she said.

The couple bought the property from Hogan’s grandfather in 2015. Hogan intends to apply for the grant again to restore the hayloft. 

The restoration work so far has earned appreciation from the keepers of the community’s history.

“Thank you to Hogan and Martin Hogan for working with the state in securing the grant and saving a piece of Point Roberts history,” the Point Roberts Historical Society said in a post on Facebook.