May 31—BLUFFTON — If all goes as planned, a new Heritage Center will adorn the grounds of the Swiss Community Historical Society’s Old Schumaker Homestead by the time the annual Bluffton Fall Festival rolls around on the last weekend of September.

That $1 million plan, however, hinges exclusively on the support of corporate and individual donors, who thus far have provided approximately 80% of the funding necessary to transform a barn built in the 1850s into an educational/cultural center to display artifacts and advance the history of Swiss settlers in Allen and Putnam counties.

In 2019 the historical society’s board of directors, with their collective eyes on the future, purchased the barn from descendants of Peter Bixel Jr. It was a structure that had stood along Phillips Road for 170 years. The board’s vision was to have the barn dismantled, piece-by-piece, and then re-constructed at the Schumacher historical site at 8350 Bixel Road — some two miles down the road from the barn’s longtime home.

Five years years later the project is nearing completion. Following a ground-breaking ceremony in August of 2023 crews began the task of reassembling hand-hewn oak beams taken from the Bixel barn. By mid-November the structure was under roof, with window and door framing and other tasks being completed. Earlier this year new flooring was installed, a heating system was installed and bathroom walls were framed.

Work continues today, but funds are running short. Board member Jeff Althaus, who along with Seth Bixel serve as project managers for the Heritage Center, this week said initial estimates for the project set the cost for the center at $850,000. Mandated additions, many of which focused on requirements contained in the Americans With Disabilities Act, boosted the cost to more than $1 million.

Gary Wetherill, president of the historical society board, expressed his appreciation to donors whose contributions have made the project possible.

“This project turned out to be a little bigger than we thought it would be, but it is being financed totally by donations. A town of 4,500 people (Bluffton) really stepped up for us,” he said.

Additional funding is still needed, and Wetherill is confident it will be secured.

“There are quite a few followers of this project who played in that old barn as kids and who have said they are looking forward to seeing it again. I think there is some entity out there — be it corporate or an individual — that is happy that this barn is being saved and will step up.”

“We’re the best kept secret in Ohio,” Althaus said of the not-for-profit historical society, “and our pocketbook is about empty.”

The repurposed barn when finally compete will be heated and air-conditioned and will include a large event space, classroom, artifact storage space and public restrooms.

“We don’t want it to be a full-blown event center, but we will gladly open the barn for people who want to hold reunions and similar gatherings,” said Wetherill.