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Friday, May 18, 2012
Covering Dallas, Monmouth, Independence, Falls City and surrounding areas since 1868
Green Villa Barn Event Manager Ginger Lushenko walks across the dance floor inside the restored barn. Lushenko's parents, Charlotte and Joost VanderHave, bought the barn 33 years ago to add to their farm, but since have restored the 10,000-square-foot structure to its former glory when it was known as the Kenti Dance Hall.
June 14, 2011
INDEPENDENCE -- Standing under the web of heavy beams and cables that sustain the high-pitched roof of the Green Villa Barn, you might hear the sounds of history if you listen closely.
The strains of big band music that once emanated from the hall's shell-shaped stage. The rhythmic steps on the dance floor. The banter between farmers enjoying a respite from a hard week's work.
Prohibition was still in effect during the 1930s. Independence was the Hop Capitol of the World. And this barn -- or the Kenti Dance Hall as it was known back then-- was one of the biggest draws for partygoers in the Willamette Valley.
Charlotte VanderHave, left, and her daughter Ginger Lushenko in the restored bandshell at Green Villa Barn. The shell was hand painted and cut from hundreds of slats in 1928.
But time lingers on. And in the decades following World War II, the 10,000-square-foot structure fell into a gradual state of disrepair.
The VanderHave family, owners of Green Villa Farms, bought the building 33 years ago. And they considered tearing it down.
Instead, Charlotte and Joost VanderHave spent several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing the aging barn and helping it recapture some of its former glory.
The structure -- with a capacity of about 400 people -- has been a unique event venue in Polk County and the Mid-Willamette Valley since 2001, one that hosts everything from weddings to political forums.
A way to supplement the VanderHave family's farming operations -- they grow filberts, fruits and vegetables on nearly 300 acres north of Independence -- the barn sees near-constant use during the summer.
"The exciting part is restoring something that reaches back into time," said Charlotte, who Joost credits as the force behind the improvements. "Sometimes, we're a throwaway nation ... it's exciting to take something old and make it new."
The barn was christened the "Kenti" -- pronounced Ken-tie -- a combination of the last names of hop farmers Grover Titus and Frank Kennedy, who erected the building in 1928.
The pair envisioned it as a sort of community hub for those who came for the hop harvest in Independence during the 1930s.
Workers left their kids at the barn on weekdays, under the care of women from local churches. From Friday to Sunday, however, people from across Polk County would flock to the Kenti for dances and performances by the Midnight Suns, Thomas Brothers Band of Salem and other musical favorites.
Evidence of those festivities disappeared after World War II, as the barn was put back into normal farm service. The VanderHaves purchased the property with the rest of their acreage in 1978 and used it as a holding pen for sheep.
The barn as it sat in 1980, disregarded and in disrepair.
By then, the barn was deteriorating. Its roof leaked and the siding was warped. Dirt and muck replaced the dance floor.
"My sister and I never came within 10 feet of the front door," said Ginger Lushenko, Charlotte's daughter, with a laugh. Lushenko has taken over Green Villa's event-management duties.
Though the barn seemed like a liability, the thought of razing it was too much to bear, Charlotte VanderHave said. So the family used some of its inheritance and Charlotte began using funds made through her fruit stand into renovating the barn.
Slowly, but surely, the roof was fixed and windows replaced. The building was rewired and its floor filled in with cement. A mural hand painted by farmworkers in 1928 on the bandshell was restored.
The Green Villa Barn today, restored as an event hall that sees near-constant use in summer.
The barn was used by Samantha Henderson, Charlotte's daughter, for her wedding in 2004. Soon after, people began asking to rent it and a business was born, VanderHave said.
The VanderHaves remodeled the bathrooms and added a full-service kitchen and an upstairs office in 2005. The dance floor came next. It's a 50 x 50 foot hardwood floor that once belonged to an old Eddie Bauer store in Salem.
Green Villa is almost constantly booked during summer weekends. The VanderHaves also offer it up free of charge for church youth groups on Wednesdays -- or when the situation calls for it. The barn has accommodated in recent years memorials for military veterans who've died in the line of duty.
Charlotte VanderHave said the barn is holding up, though there are plans in the future to re-roof it -- a $30,000 job.
"There's goes a trip I wanted to take," she said with a laugh.
She said she's happy that Lushenko will be able to keep the facility up and running for another generation and that the legacy of the barn, or Kenti, as a place for community members to gather.
"It's not just the joy of having this restored building, but what it can do for people," VanderHave said.
Check It Out
* Green Villa Barn is located at 3215 Independence Highway, just north of downtown Independence. For more information: 503-838-3475 or www.greenvilla.us.
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