from The Anglican Digest, TRANSFIGURATION 2000
The native rock foundation and half-basement are built into the side of a hill known as Grindstone Mountain so that both the basement and the first floor have ground level entrances, and the basement features windows on its "down" side. Above the rock foundation and basement the remaining three floors are primarily of native oak sheathed in Masonite (the beams in the basement are quadruple laminated 2 x 12s and the roof trusses and rafters are rough-cut 2 x 6s). The original roof was of wood shingles.
Sometime after World War II, when metal for such purposes again became available, a steel roof was added (reputedly at a cost of $5000). With its gleaming metal roof and barn-red siding, the barn quickly became a landmark in the area.
In the early '60s, soon after it became headquarters for SPEAK and its activities, an addition was built on to the west side of the barn itself to provide a fire-safe space for files and records. A heavy concrete slab formed the ceiling so that a second story could be added (and the roof line of the old barn carefully replicated) so that the Big Red Barn became the Twin Barns. SPEAK's computer and equipment for mailing books and the Digest remain on the first floor of the "new" building and the second floor is given over to office space for the Book Club, the magazine and the bookstore.
Atop the cupola on the old building is a red horse weather vane (weather is important to us here in the Ozarks) and atop the new addition is a cupola containing the bells that ring the hour and half-hour at Hillspeak from eight in the morning until eight at night.
Two years ago a replacement roof of aluminum-steel alloy was installed on the old building (at a cost of $10,000!) to match the roof on the addition. Most recently, the car shed roof at the front of the barns was replaced with the same metal by SPEAK's own maintenance crew.
Today with their gleaming metal roofs and barn-red siding, the Twin Barns remain a landmark to those who live here-abouts and a beacon of faith exemplified to those who visit.
(Tours of the Twin Barns and of Hillspeak's Morningside are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and at other times by appointment.)
805 CR 102 - EUREKA SPRINGS AR 72632-9705
PHONE: 501-253-9701 FAX: 501-253-1277 E-MAIL:speak@speakinc.org
