A member of the Chesterfield Historic and Landmark Preservation Commission has raised concerns about a barn in Eberwein Park not being added to the city's list of historical landmarks.

The city decided to save the building almost two years ago when it bought the land that is now Eberwein Park. At the time, the property also had a family farmhouse, but the city council decided the structure was too expensive to restore, despite pleas from several residents to save it. 

As a compromise, the city voted to spend $140,000 to historically restore the barn, but raze the house for $45,000 (estimates to restore the home as well were upwards of $300,000.) The renovation work on the barn is now nearly complete.  

Preservation Commission member Todd Williams is part of the Chesterfield Heritage Foundation, an organization which advocated for saving the farmhouse and tried to raise money to do so, and told Patch that the barn deserves to be on the list. 

"That's the only remaining remnant of that farm on the property," he said. "It's not a tin shed, it's not a portable building. What was left was an original barn from the Eberwein family."

Williams said he wanted to call attention to the situation after an unanimous decision by the commission to add the barn to the historic landmark list was declined by city staff, who said the city council had already previously decided against it.  

Planning Director Aimee Nassif is the liason to the commission and said Chesterfield had looked at adding the building to the list two years ago when it first acquired the Eberwein property. 

"It's an old structure, but it's not historic," she said, pointing to the fact that it has overhead garage doors. 

However, Nassif added that the city has spent time and money restoring and stabilizing the barn and that there are no plans to remove it whatsoever.