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Victorian Homes Magazine
Historic Restoration…The Ultimate Recycling
Old Barn has new life as the Seabiscuit Performing Arts Center
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 Dr.
Barbara and Skip Newell, Penofin's owners, saved Seabiscuit's
owner's barns and eventually rebuilt it into one of this country's
unique performing arts centers. The story of this historic preservation
is one of inspiration and imagination.
 But
first, the background. Charles S. Howard Jr. had retired Seabiscuit
to Ridgewood Ranch about one half hour north of what is now
the Newell home. Howard owned a second ranch in Potter Valley
used as a get-away in the 1940s.
You see, thousands of tourists and fans wanted to visit the
horse that beat War Admiral at Pimlico in Baltimore in 1938.
The race was the most listened to radio broadcast of all-time.
Howard, although always a gracious host, needed a respite
from all the visitors. It was his Potter Valley ranch that
he turned to.
 Over
time, after the death of Howard, the barns gradually decayed.
The wood weathered, some of the boards rotted, and the barns
seemed slated for firewood. That's when the Newell's stepped
in to stop the destruction and find a new home for the barns.
A team of preservationists took apart the three barns, marking
each board with a numbered lumber tag. The boards were then
moved about a mile down the road to the Newell home and reassembled.
Wood damaged beyond repair was replaced; however, most of the
lumber was salvaged and restored using Penofin. Old-growth redwood,
once slated for the burn pile, was given new life.
 The
barn's new home is on the Newell's Spotswood Estate. The old
estate house, built in 1885, is a Mendocino County Historic
Site, dedicated in 2003. A tall metal silo and many pieces of
old farm machinery owned by Charles S. Howard Jr. are also now
part of the Spotswood Estate.
When the largest barn went back up at the Newell's farm, it
created an acoustic wonder with its Pennsylvania Dutch gambrel-roofed
shape and its second story that rises sixty feet above the floor.
When this old-growth redwood building was restored piece-by-piece,
contractors replaced the upper-level floor weakened by 250 tons
of raw hay it held every year since 1920.
 When
workers replaced the redwood floor, the acoustic affect of sound
bouncing off the floor and the redwood arches in the 2,800 square
foot building was astounding. The Newell's knew immediately
that it had to become a very unique performing arts center and
named it the Penofin- Seabiscuit Performing Arts Center.
The Newells built a large stage atone end of the huge second
floor auditorium. Technicians hung theater lighting from the
rafters complete with a control board for many unique effects.
A permanent sound system was added with a "flying"
speaker system allowing the sound technicians to aim the speakers
for the audience depending on the seating and the performer's
needs. The Penofin-Seabiscuit Performing Arts Center can seat
400.
 The
11th Annual Penofin Jazz Festival was just held at the Center,
the "theater-in-the-round" perfect for jazz. The speakers
are adjustable overhead and the sound was absolutely perfect.
The stage is returned to the north end of the hall for other
music events. This April, the incredible Ralph Stanley from
the film "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and the Grand
Ol' Opry, with many tours of Europe and the Far East as well
as across the U.S. since 1946, appeared in the Penofin-Seabiscuit
Performing Arts Center for the fourth time to cheering fans
and admirers. The Center has also had the great bluegrass group
John Reischman and the Jaybirds for three appearances as well
as the great fiddler and singer Michelle Lambert and the local
old-time group Movin' On. The Center is also the site of the
Penofin Wood Finish Dealers, Distributors, and Sales Representitive
Conventions.
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