As we build the future of training and research at the SEED Campus, we’re also honoring 145 years of history that began in Kent, Ohio.
Take a peek at an interesting part of that history that will soon be unveiled:
When Davey Tree acquired the nearly 200 acres across from our corporate headquarters, this historic barn was on the property. It had been there for decades, but local experts have deduced that the barn originated in Earlville, Ohio, the present-day Twin Lakes area, which was once a thriving shipping point on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad.
Ohio State University assessed the barn’s timbers and determined they were harvested around 1890 – around the same time Davey was founded in 1880. Knowing that, “it just seemed like a no-brainer to save it and repurpose it,” Dan Joy, retired executive vice president and assistant to the president, recalled on Davey’s Talking Trees podcast last year.
So, it was dismantled piece-by-piece, and the timbers were stored until they could be reassembled.
Building a Center for Gathering
The timbers were re-raised in summer 2024 into a barn that anchors one end of the SEED Campus’s main building. It’ll serve as an events center – housing corporate events, the annual shareholders’ meeting, trainings, and more. And as a nod to our history, the original white oak timbers will be exposed on the interior.
Employees and retirees will soon be able to experience the historic barn in its restored glory: The 2025 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting is scheduled to be held there on May 20, 2025.
