KENNEBUNK – One of Kennebunk’s oldest and most well-known dwellings, Barnard’s Tavern, has been sold.

Randy and Kari Gates, who moved to Kennebunk two years ago, closed on the property on Feb. 23.

Kennebunk residents Randy and Kari Gates recently purchased the Barnard’s Tavern property in Kennebunk. Kari Gates said they plan to renovate the historic Georgian structure and envision creating about five apartments for year-round residents in the main building. Dan King photo

In a recent interview, Kari Gates said she and her husband plan to renovate the historic Georgian structure and envision creating about five apartments for year-round residents in the main building.

“Outside will be a complete repair,” Kari Gates said. “We’ll keep the outside the way it is.”

Parking will be added in the location where Dr. Jo Johnson, who purchased the property with her husband, history buff William Johnson, in 1975, had parking for her ophthalmology practice.

“I can’t imagine letting that building fall away to nothing,” Gates said. The couple moved to Kennebunk in 2019, after 30 years in Texas.

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Unbeknownst to the couple until recently, Kari Gates discovered she has family connections to one of the owners of the property over its long life – she’s related to the Day and Littlefield families in the area. According to historical records, members of the Day family owned the tavern property, on Barnard’s Lane, off Portland Road (Route 1), for a time.

Kennebunk residents Randy and Kari Gates purchased the old Barnard’s Tavern. Kari Gates said she and her husband hope to turn the interior into year-round apartments. Courtesy Photo/Kari Gates

About 10 days ago, workers began looking at the foundation and other aspects of the structure. Codes Enforcement Officer Brian Paul said he issued a building permit for that portion of the work, and Gates said she expected to meet soon with the Historic Preservation Commission and also begin the planning process for renovations.

“Mom is going to relocate here, and we’ve been looking around for year-round rentals (for her) and there weren’t a lot,” said Gates, who has a background in design and remodeling, and a daughter who is an architect.

According to the town’s property records, Barnard’s Tavern was built about 1776, though some historical accounts differ. An undated newspaper clipping indicates the land was purchased by Joseph Barnard in 1781 and the tavern built in 1784 – though an account by Susan C. S. Edwards, also undated, states the main house was begun before the American Revolution. An ell and barn date to 1830-1840.

The account by Edwards notes the tavern was named for Joseph Barnard, who drove the first mail coach from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Portland in 1787, and later became Kennebunk’s second postmaster. He operated a hotel there until his death in 1817. His widow, Rachel continued to run the tavern, selling to Timothy Frost in 1823. He ran it as a tavern until 1853. It then became the property of the Curtis family, who had a farm there during the Civil War, and later the old tavern became a rooming house.

Dan King photo

For a period of time in the 20th century, Barnard’s Tavern became an orphanage for upward of 20 children, Edwards wrote.

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Edwards and others have noted that the Marquis de Lafayette was a guest there when he traveled to America in 1825, and William Jennings Bryan, secretary of state for President Woodrow Wilson, visited in the summer of 1924, when it was known as the Stagecoach Tavern.

The undated news clipping noted that when the property was owned by the Jandebeur family, who purchased it in 1968, they discovered a secret compartment in a window seat in one of the rooms on the upper level, and an old oven in the attic where hams were smoked.

“During the first half of the 19th century it was the stopping place of several Whig Party July 4th celebrations, including one in 1840, which was the largest political gathering the new state of Maine has ever witnessed,” Edwards wrote.

It was purchased by William and Jo Johnson in 1975, after a fire. The couple renovated, and lived there for many years. William Johnson died in 2014. The property was sold to C & K Realty in 2016 and has been vacant since then.

Dan King photo

Kari Gates said the apartments she envisions will have a common room on the first floor and includes plans for a garden, with a sitting area. She plans a Facebook page for those interested in following the project.

“We’ll make it nice and preserve it,” she said. The barn will be a future project and at some point, she said she’d like to restore the clock tower that was moved to the property by William Johnson. The clock tower originated with an early Wells Town Hall. The windmill on the lawn, also brought to the property by Johnson, came from the Hiram Perkins farm in North Berwick and dates to 1902. Gates said she’ll take it apart and have to see if it can be repaired.

Dan King photo

“Ever since we’ve been here, (Barnard’s Tavern) has called my name,” said Gates. “We’re excited and think it will be great for the community.”

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