Peter
Maruca ’87, right, Hollie Powers Holt ’78, and
her husband, Jamie, in front of a transplanted 150-year-old
Pennsylvania barn. (Courtesy Peter Maruca ’87)
Barn
again
Peter Maruca ’87 raises barn for Hollie Powers Holt ’78
Peter J. Maruca ’87 can trace his infatuation with construction
back to 1969, when he watched his father and grandfather build an
addition to the family’s home in Princeton. As a teenager,
he was a carpenter’s helper during summers. Although he dabbled
in several careers after majoring in art history at Princeton —
banking, marketing, and musical performance – he always gravitated
back to carpentry.
Now the owner of Orion General Contractors in Haverford, Pa.,
Maruca has made a name for himself remodeling and constructing high-end
homes in the Philadelphia suburbs, specializing in historical renovations.
One of his most interesting and challenging projects of late was
the disassembling and moving of a historic, 150-year-old bank barn
— built into a hillside to allow for access at two levels
— made of white oak timbers from a field in rural Pennsylvania
to Hollie Powers Holt ’78’s backyard in Wayne, Pa.,
last fall.
Maruca met Holt, an antiques dealer, eight years ago while both
were serving on the board of the Princeton Club of Philadelphia.
Transplanting the barn isn’t the first project Maruca has
worked on for Holt and her husband, Jamie. Three years ago Maruca
carried out a major renovation and addition to the Holts’
1782 house.
When the couple decided to replace the garage on their property
with a more historically appropriate structure, it seemed only logical
that they would search for a hand-hewn barn, in which the major
timbers were fashioned by hand, to complement Jamie’s growing
collection of hand-hewing tools.
It took the Holts four years to locate an original structure that
was in good enough condition to relocate. Maruca oversaw the dismantling
of the barn and its stone foundation; the construction of the new
stone foundation, reusing the old stone; the raising of the barn;
and the installation of the trim and electrical systems. The first
floor of the barn serves as a garage. The upstairs is a woodworking
shop for Jamie. Said Maruca, “While old barns are frequently
salvaged for their timbers and stones, it is all too rare that they
are actually transplanted and recycled.”
By Kathryn Levy Feldman ’78
Kathryn Levy Feldman ’78 is a freelance writer in Bryn
Mawr, Pa.
