Red Barn 2003

Abstract

WHEN I FIRST saw the Red Barn it was a rusted, pockmarked, weatherworn thing, its windows sealed with strips of tin and rusted metal. The building is a favorite subject for photographer William Christenberry, an Alabama native transplanted to Washington, D.C., who has visited Hale County each summer for the last three decades to document the aging process of buildings from his youth. Jay Sanders says that when he was a second-year student, “There were rumors that the building had been a brothel, a movie theater, and a lot of other things. Apparently it was a hay barn.” Along with the post office and G.B. Mercantile, the two-story Red Barn is downtown Newbern.