The Cotton Barn was built by Ralph and Noble Bassett in the 1930s on the east side of Taylor's Mill Rd. to store cotton bales and cotton seed. It replaced the old barn which was closer to the house.

We were in the process of purchasing the old Bassett Barn - The Cotton Barn - when a tornado that was caused by hurricane Katrina destroyed the Robins Federal building then came down Taylor's Mill Rd.  There was considerable damage to the structure, but we still felt it was worth saving.  We will be repairing the roof and the back wall that was blown out, then removing the 2 sides to prepare the main structure to be moved across the street in 1 piece.  The main frame of the barn is 30 by 70 feet with 12 foot overhangs on the front.  We purchased the barn on September 21, 2005.

September 29, 2005

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The roof has been repaired and the sides are coming off. Johnnie Wealot of Wealot and Son Construction are taking care of this stage of the project. They do great work.  They installed the metal roof on our house a couple of years ago.  We had no roof damage from this tornado!

October 23, 2005 - We are making progress. Saturday and today, we filled up a 20 yard dumpster with trash, sawdust, boards, sheetrock and insulation. Troy Himes, of Himes sanitation just delivered our second dumpster.

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The 4 pictures above were taken this afternoon - October 23, 2005

Email we sent out Jan 22nd, 2006 - The holidays are over and we are getting back to one of our projects - the barn.  The barn mover called last weekend and said his schedule is looking somewhat clear in about 4 weeks, so we have to get ready.  We went to the barn yesterday with the trailer and loaded a lot of wood and metal roofing.  We brought it back to the house and stacked the metal in a pile.  We then began removing the nails from the boards. Those nails have been there a long time and some of them do not want to come out.

Went back to the barn this morning with the big truck.  I loaded the dumpster from the warehouse in Macon into the truck Thursday.  A lot of the wood is in short pieces or rotten, unfortunately we are throwing a small amount away. After loading the trash bin to capacity and loading a lot more wood on the truck this morning we spent this afternoon pulling more nails. So far we have saved over 1000 pounds of old pine boards and pulled about 25 pounds of nails. Who's idea was this project?

We were wondering about the people who built this barn and hammered these nails 65 years ago. Some of the wood looks like it may have been used before - maybe from the earlier barn.
Does anyone have any pictures of the barn during construction or at any time of its life? If those boards could talk...
Do you know anyone else who would like to receive this newsletter?
We will keep you updated.
More Later from Pineola Farms, Paul & Delise  www.pineola.com

Pictures below are from January 27, 2006 - We have another dumpster on the way...

Above - 4/25/06 The foundation goes in. 40 pier pads have been poured

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The barn is in place at Pineola Farms - No idea what we were going to do with it. Then people started stopping by and asking if they could get married on our property - that old barn would be a great place for receptions...

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April 27th, 2007

This is the rear and side. The brick piers will support the deck. The blocks will support the addition of the bathrooms, dressing room, caterers kitchen and utility room. The handicap ramp will be on the other end. The Brick and block piers have been built.  This is the front of the barn where a covered porch will be installed. It will measure 82' wide by 11 1/2' deep.

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The Brick and block piers have been built. This is the front of the barn where a covered porch will be installed. It will measure 82' wide by 11 1/2' deep.


June 8, 2007  Over half the siding is up, the plumbing and electrical are roughed in, air conditioning units are being installed this weekend and windows are ordered. We are making good progress. 
Weddings and Receptions  coming soon.

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May 21st, 2007

All of the interior wood has been sealed. The back wall is up.

Entrance to the addition. You can see the wall for the dressing room through the doorway.

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Front Porch Overlooking the Back Yard

Each window had to be custom cut since no two were the same size.

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Hardwood Floor installed... For one of our first events.

Band set up for  Celebration Band
for Fort Valley High School Reunion 
1966-67-68