New Chairs— 2024:
The Red Barn is 100+ years old. It’s a treasured, unique venue for events like concerts, weddings, memorials, parties, and BBQs.
It’s in a San Luis Obispo County park and the county keeps the fees low so everyone can afford to rent it for events. But with budget constraints and recent countywide flood damage that overtaxed the Parks Department budget, they can’t afford to replace things like tables and chairs at their facilities like the Red Barn.
That’s why Celebrate Los Osos raised money to purchase the much-needed new tables last year and we asked for your help to purchase 100 new chairs this year.
The chairs cost $4077.85 (including the tax). Because you responded so quickly and generously, the County Park Department asked if we could also provide three carts to hold/store the chairs. They cost an additional $1072.49 and you made that happen too!
County Parks staff under the direction locally of Supervising Ranger Lasca Gaylord have been over-the-top helpful to have the deliveries made to El Chorro Regional Park, assemble the carts and deliver everything to the Red Barn Thursday, August 1. Just look at the photo! What a difference!!! August 3 the first event—a wedding—was scheduled. And while the guests may not realize there has been a huge change, we locals do. We all will be able to sit there and be silently and genuinely grateful to all who made this happen.
Even though we were part of the process of raising the funds, ordering the chairs and posting about them, we really had absolutely NO IDEA what the visual impact new chairs would be. WOW is the only thing we can say! Fortunately an owner of a local Airbnb messaged us Saturday, August 3 to say guests were staying with her that were part of a wedding party at the Red Barn. We were able to photograph the barn’s interior before the ceremony and the sight was amazing!
THANK YOU LOS OSOS for making this transformation possible!!!!!
Thank you Supervisor Bruce Gibson for your continued enthusiastic support and generosity!
Antique banquet tables get replaced!
The Red Barn is old. So old the date 1919 is hand carved on the outside near the back door. The 8-foot banquet tables look about as old. Well maybe not that old, but very old, very heavy, difficult to open and close, and very worn and beat up.
When we painted the Red Barn many of the volunteers complained about how unsightly they were and when they had events at the barn the first consideration was how to disguise the tables into something other than old, tired and ugly.
Celebrate Los Osos could not afford to buy new tables outright. But if we could get a little help with a small grant, we could contribute a little money. The problem would be the cost of shipping because they are heavy.
New tables will be an improvement and would help ensure the facility continued as a desirable event location. We met with the then Director of County Parks, Nick Franco and asked about the specific specifications for tables that the County would require. The County specified the Lifetime 8-Foot Commercial Folding Tables because they are constructed of high-density polyethylene and are stronger, lighter and more durable than wood. They do not crack, chip, or peel, and are built for indoor and outdoor use. The patented steel frame design provides a sturdy foundation and is protected with a powder-coated weather-resistant finish. They are built for the rigors of demanding commercial use. These tables exceed challenging BIFMA standards (common standards for desk and table products meant for use in a commercial office environment) and are perfect for event venues. They hold up to 500 pounds.
Most importantly, they would be far more aesthetic than the existing tables.
We talked to Supervisor Bruce Gibson and applied for and received a San Luis Obispo County Community Grant.
Thus the table saga began:
Total budget: $1916 plus $49 shipping per table for a total of $2357. Yikes!
We decided to use Amazon Prime because of free shipping, a brilliant idea it seemed. So we ordered nine 8-foot tables on May 10. Two weeks later there were no tables. We called Amazon. They had been shipped. Amazon asked us to wait another two weeks and promised they’d arrive soon. They didn’t. Then they tracked them down to somewhere in Kansas, but they’d disappeared.
Amazon cancelled the order and we ordered them again. Two weeks later the same thing happened again. It’s now mid-June.
June 24th 4 tables arrived. Five tables were missing. Amazon had no idea where they were. This took hours on the phone.
We ordered them again. They also went missing. Amazon has no idea what happened to the tables. Somewhere in the US there were 14 8-foot banquet tables destined for the Red Barn that never made it to Los Osos but instead are --- somewhere else.
By late August 4 more banquet tables arrived but by then Amazon’s supplier announced they could not provide any more tables for several months, and we only needed ONE more! We ordered it through Home Depot and Tim Faes, Substitute Supervising Park Ranger/Park Ranger Specialist picked it up in San Luis Obispo.
A long story to say the Red Barn gets an upgrade with one more to come — new chairs in 2024.
Saga over.
$1500 of funding was generously provided by Supervisor Bruce Gibson from San Luis Obispo County Community Grant Funds. The balance came from Celebrate Los Osos.
Beautification/Preservation/Restoration
Agriculture is central to the San Luis Obispo County economy, and our Red Barn evokes the area’s rich ranching and farming history. It holds that sense of tradition and closeness to the land. Today it serves as a beloved and popular community gathering place.
The Red Barn stands on land that was once part of the old Mexican land grant La Cañada de Los Osos. When the rancho was broken up, varying parts of it went through a series of owners. Two Swiss geologists, Drs. Hershey and Heim, hired workers to farm the land. The barn may have been built then. T. P. Bush, and Charles and Emma Ferrell bought 220 acres in 1912. Charles Ferrell farmed oats and rye, so he could have built the barn. The property was sold to Morro Palisades Company in 1957 and the barn was there at that time. We do not know who built the barn or when, but we do know that local people boarded horses at the barn in the 1960s. The barn sits on 6.2 acres of land, which was donated by the Morro Palisades Company to San Luis Obispo County for a park in 1973.
In 2017 we looked closely at the Red Barn and asked ourselves if we had the ability to take it on as a project. It is old and big. The year 1919 is hand carved on its back side. Paint was peeling from the wood sides. It was suffering from years of deferred maintenance: damaged siding, rusting hardware, missing battens, and cold drafts blowing through the holes in the siding, making the room uncomfortably cold for evening events. County Parks’ staff told us the barn has not been painted for at least 15 years. A total of 312 linear feet of trim and siding needed to be replaced.
We decided if we could get enough volunteers and get a grant to pay for the materials we could do it!
So in 2017 Celebrate Los Osos applied for a San Luis Obispo County Infrastructure Grant to help pay for materials and supplies to help in the restoration and beautification of the historic barn. It’s a very popular, local indoor facility available for events and concerts in the Los Osos Community Park, and used by locals and visitors alike.
We agreed to:
1) Replace and repair wood and hardware
2) Cover and protect all plants and surfaces not to be painted
3) Etch all bare metal
4) Scrape and sand all loose/peeling surfaces
5) Patch surfaces to be painted as necessary
6) Spot prime metal and wood as necessary
7) Mask openings
8) Spray coating with airless sprayer with back brushing/rolling
9) Clean up
10) Design, construct and install a permanent sign to be placed above the barn doors.
Ace Hardware donated 25 gallons of paint and provided a very generous discount on the remaining paint. Their contribution helped to make the project affordable.
We were able to team up with County Park staff who performed most of the repairs. The County provided the grant funds. Our hero, Tom Needham, a local retired painting contractor volunteered to head up the project and supervise over 100 volunteers (most of us unskilled but enthusiastic) for the next two weeks. We spent 10 days cleaning, removing staples and nails, prepping the building and filling holes in the wood prior to painting.
On the big day, Tom brought his equipment and Always An A Painting Company of Los Osos brought their entire crew and sprayers and by early afternoon the entire barn had been painted and finished. Volunteers followed the professional painters with rollers to back brush large surfaces to guarantee a uniform coat for a polished result.
It took another two days to clean up. But the job was done.
Now, for the first time the Red Barn deserved a — building marker:
The Red Barn had never had an identifying sign, and as an important gathering place and historic building it needed one. Signs play an important role in human activity. They identify. They direct and decorate. They promote, inform, and advertise. They affirm an experience and are essentially social.
Celebrate Los Osos had worked with Sean Beauchamp of Southpaw Signs on past projects. He is well known for his signs which look like hand-carved wood. He designed the oval 4’x3’ sign to look like it came from an earlier era, befitting an old barn.
The sign was made of high-density urethane sign foam, the industry standard replacement for redwood because of durability, especially in a marine environment. Sean primed the hardware with a primer formulated by the urethane sign foam supplier. Top coats on the sign are a combination of acrylic paints and lettering enamels designed for the sign industry. The materials and construction methods are the highest in industry standards and result in the longest lasting sign.
Because this barn is a key gathering point in Los Osos, attracting thousands of locals and visitors each year, it is important that it is well maintained and visually appealing to people who wish to rent the barn for their events. This grant enabled repairs and improvements to make the visitors’ experiences more memorable.
The old barn was transformed into something we can all be proud of. The Red Barn deserved the care and preservation.
The list of helpers is very long: Bob Yetter (Supervising Ranger for the Coast Region) and his team, Tom Needham (crew foreman), Randy Ayala and Brandon from Always An A Painting, Sean Beauchamp from Southpaw Sign Company, Oasis Equipment Rental, Mimi Kalland (CLO wrangler), Arnold Kirkewoog, Brandon Dove, Brandon Shelton, Carolyn Baggerly Shank, Chuck Mills, Cynthia Dietrich, Dennis Whittinghill, Edward Gelb, Ellie Malykont, Faylla Chapman, Gene Kalland, Will Kastner, Gerard Ages, Ingrid Brink, Irene Schmidt, Jan Harper, Jennifer and Anthony Frere and their son Anthony Frere (age 11), Jim and Donna Cady, Joe Asire, John Lopez, John Sachs, Karen Dillis, Kathleen Hennekey, Lou and Lynette Tornatzky, Lucile Gash, Mandy Ward, Meg Syfan, Michael and Sharon Sheltzer, Myron and Sue Hood, Pandora Nash-Karner, Gary Karner, Pat Walker, Paul Griffith, Randy Ayala, Susan McTaggart, Tim Rochte, Tony Lindstrom, Tony Salome, Vinny Smith, and more whose names we wish that we had caught. These people also volunteered but the barn was finished early and before they were scheduled for duty: Elizabeth Crow, Jillian DuBois, Marcie ?, James Gaberel, Tanny Koeppel, Helena Lake, Dick Platter, Joyce Rufenacht, Irene Schmidt, Eric Tinglof and Marilyn Wills. Our apologies for the people we missed.
Thank you to Carlock's Bakery for donuts in the morning! Thank you Starbuck’s for coffee in the morning! Thank you to Nichols Pizza N Grill for pizza for everyone for lunch!
Thank you to Miner's Ace Hardware for their fabulous support and contributions of many gallons of paint, and a very generous discount for the rest.
Thank you to the Tribune News for their great coverage from David Middlecamp and Monica Vaughan!
Red Barn Party and Sign Unveiling
Red Barn Sign
