Our barn is the heart and soul of Knoll Farm’s mission to create refuge and nurture community.

100 years ago, our barn was raised in its current location at Knoll Farm by farmers and neighbors in our Mad River valley. For a century it has been a place of refuge for thousands, a place of celebration and a safe harbor. In our own time of stewardship – one quarter of that century – the barn has nurtured hundreds of justice leaders through our Better Selves Fellowships and other programs.

The Barn Fund helps us to maintain this 10,000 square foot, 200-year-old, historic structure of national significance. In 1992, Knoll Farm became listed on the National Register of Historic Places in part because of the stories that our barn could tell. The Barn Fund helps us to be the voice of those stories and to keep the barn healthy and in service to many communities, far and wide.

In 2023-2025, we turned to our community for your help restoring the barn and more than $1 million was raised from hundreds of households to help the barn flourish for another 100 years. This ambitious effort for the barn’s future sustainability has fundamentally strengthened the heart and soul of the farm, and every other building as well. That campaign made it possible to give the barn a new foundation, new electrical systems, a commercial kitchen, many important structural improvements, and greatly improved meeting spaces and accessibility.

The barn always needs our love and attention to make annual repairs and improvements of about $25,000 each year. Your support of the Barn Fund will help us to keep the barn open and thriving for all as a cathedral of rural life. Some of our priority big projects in 2025-2026 include replacing worn and beetle-damaged flooring on the barn’s main level, reinforcing floor joists on the main and upper level, and otherwise working to preserve the structural integrity of the whole barn through regular upkeep and maintenance.