Judy A. Totts | The Gazette

MONTVILLE TWP. — The red barn on Ted Chandler’s farm stands out against the gray June sky, snuggled comfortably into the slope leading to wide doors on the sunset side.

Roof slates looking like overlapping pewter coins bear the date it was built — 1909. A brisk wind pushes wisps of hay across floorboards worn smooth in places by boots and bare-footed children.

It holds the scent of summer and the heart of the farm where ponies still roam the pastures and killdeers nest in the grass. The barn houses nostalgic bits and pieces of a slower time — a carriage pushed into the shadows on one side, a trunk tucked beneath boards and boxes on the other, a collection of hay hooks, shovels and pitchforks. A New Holland bale carrier rears toward the wide overhead beams Chandler once dared to walk as a child.

It is a mecca for Medina artist Fred Graff and his watercolor students, who have made a pilgrimage to the Chandler farm every summer for a workshop since 1982. Graff, who remembers going on hayrides at the farm as a teen with his church group, said it was a moving experience when he rediscovered it.

ABOVE: The barn on Ted Chandler’s farm, built in 1909, is a familiar part of the landscape on East Smith Road in Montville Township. Every year, Medina artist Fred Graff brings students to the farm for a weeklong watercolor workshop. One of the students, Dianne Parker of Lakeline, Ohio, is framed in the left doorway as she captures the lay of the land to the east of the barn Thursday. BELOW: From left, Jim Chandler, of Millersburg, Fred Graff, of Medina, and Ted Chandler, of Montville Township, admire the cake Graff provided Thursday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the barn on Ted’s farm (Judy A. Totts | Gazette)

“We’ve visited dozens of locations, and this is our all-time favorite. It’s accommodating whether it’s raining or a perfect day. We found we enjoyed the same thing that Willy (Willette Chandler, Ted’s wife) and Ted did, the same love for the farm, each from a different viewpoint, but it was a common bond.”

Willy Chandler passed away almost two years ago, but Ted and his family continue to welcome the artists, who gravitate almost immediately to the barn.

“I always thought I’d have to spruce it up, but they always want me to leave the junk the way it is,” said Chandler, who has lived on the farm since 1927. He watched the artists painting in the field near the barn, his John Deere cap shading his eyes. He recalled stories about the neighbors turning out for the barn raising. His brother, Jim Chandler of Millersburg, recalled playing in the barn.

“We always had a big time there,” Jim said. The barn has charmed Chandler children and grandchildren since then.

“We always thought our friends would want to ride the ponies the most,” said Chris Wilder, Ted’s daughter, of Montville Township. “They did ride the ponies, but they had more fun swinging on the ropes tied to the big beams overhead in the barn.”

The open barn door framed two of the artists taking Graff’s current workshop.

“I’m very excited about Ted’s farm and the barn,” said Lynne Griffin of Chardon, as she stood back to look critically at her painting. “There’s such wonderful stuff. I love it here. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

“Every time I come, I find something new to paint,” said Gail Broughton of Cleveland Heights. This is her sixth Chandler farm watercolor workshop. “One year I painted a rack of horseshoes, and one year I did pitchforks and shovels.”

To celebrate the barn’s century mark, Graff and his wife, Jan, and his current class of 22 students, threw a party at the close of this year’s workshop on Thursday afternoon. Chandler’s family and friends gathered to share cake, ice cream and stories.

The cake depicted a field of artists working on paintings of the barn. Graff created a wooden puzzle of the barn for Chandler. The reverse side of each piece bears a workshop student’s name and a short historic fact from 1909.

“It was a way to involve everyone, and the Chandlers and the barn have really touched a lot of students,” Graff said, watching Chandler cut the cake. “Sometimes in life we don’t appreciate things until it’s too late. I know one thing appreciated and taken care of has been the farm, and Ted has appreciated every moment.”

Contact Judy A. Totts at (330) 721-4063 or religion@ohio.net.