NORWICH – A venture to reconstruct a 19th century barn in the museum district in the City of Norwich is officially underway.

On Monday, the Chenango County Historical Society and members of the Barn Committee broke ground at the Historical Society on Rexford Street. The gesture marks the starting point to a long building project that will leverage the museum’s efforts to preserve the county’s agricultural heritage.

“This is an indication that we will not only make this a reality, but we will make this one of the most spectacular places in Chenango County to educate adults who are looking for information and new generations of kids who want to know who they are and where they came from,” said CCHS Board President Joyce Zummo.

The estimated $396,500 project, dubbed the Loomis Barn Project, proposes the relocation and reconstruction of an 1860’s horse barn once owned by the notorious Loomis family, a name made famous by the family’s acts of horse thievery and livestock rustling in the 19th century. According to organizers of the project, the two-story barn may be up on museum grounds as early as this fall.

The barn was a donation to CCHS by Chenango County resident Dick Ridgway who bought the property where the barn was located in the Town of Smithville. The structure was professionally dismantled in 2011 and stored in a milk house on the owner’s property while CCHS researched building codes and procedures needed to get the project off the ground.