In New England: A Barn Is Reborn

It is now 23 years since Richard Babcock first mounted his pickup truck to rescue a colonial barn in distress, snatching a comely example of Scottish extraction, circa 1710, from the jaws of damp rot in Lenox, Mass. After eight months he had tenderly transformed her timbers into a family home in New Marlboro, 18 miles south. Thus was ignited the peculiar passion that, 75 recyclings later, still drives the master builder. "I'm an evangelist, truth to tell," he says. "Some men are called to save souls. I was called to save barns."

This cool spring afternoon, the salvation site is...

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