Terri and Jon Reece both have day jobs — she’s a real estate agent with Prudential Dinning-Beard, and he’s a restaurant manager – but they’re now opening a business together.
The couple bought what’s known as the “round barn” at 9449 S. Woodlawn south of Derby and plan to open an events venue there.
“I would like it to eventually be my job,” Jon Reece says. “We’d like to see what this turns into.”
The yellow barn, which turns 100 next year, is well known in the area.
“Everybody just knows where it is and what is is,” Terri Reece says. “Most people see it when they’re coming down K-15.”
Benton Steele, whom Reece describes as the Frank Lloyd Wright of barn building, built the barn. Two wings were added in the ’40s, and the barn eventually held a medical clinic, an antiques shop and was used for church services and other functions.
The Reeces hope to open the building as soon as possible.
“We would love to do it right now,” Terri Reece says.
But the roof needs major repairs, and the Reeces are working with the National Register of Historic Places to make sure the repairs don’t disqualify them from being on the Register.
“We actually have just started the filing process and everything for it,” Terri Reece says.
She says a lot of people — even those driving up from Oklahoma and Texas — stop by each week wanting to look at the barn and take pictures.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Terri Reece says. “You almost back up and go, ‘Wow, did I see what I think I saw?’ ”
The Reeces haven’t finalized a name for their new business.
“We thought of a million different things,” Terri Reece says. “But everybody just knows this place by ‘the round barn,’ so we’ll probably just go with The Round Barn.”
Pingback: A slacker no more