HOMER GLEN (AP) – Climbing to the very top of an old barn in Homer Township and peeking out the south window is one of Walt Konow’s favorite childhood memories.

But it was possible only when the loft was filled with hay, which made it easier for a young lad to catch a view from an otherwise unreachable vantage point.

“That was the greatest thing in the world. You could see nothing but woods,” Konow said.

The view from the opposite end was of a gravelly, seldom-traveled Bell Road. Konow, 52, often played in Tilsy Barn back then, 40-plus years ago, as his aunt and uncle worked the farm. So for the fourth-generation Homer Township farmer, the 149-year-old building has been home to much more than workhorses and milk cows. There’s a lot of sentimental value there, too.

That’s what prompted Konow to save the barn when the Will County Forest Preserve District wanted to sell or demolish it.

Yes, it required meticulously disassembling the barn piece by piece, numbering each part and relocating, rebuilding and restoring the building. But Konow preserved a special piece of Homer Township’s agricultural past as well as a piece of personal history.

Now Tilsy Barn is about to become a Will County historic landmark. The county board is expected to vote for that designation at its May meeting, after the recommendation made by the Will County Historic Preservation Commission on April 6.

The three-bay threshing barn sits on Konow’s 200-acre grain farm at 168th Street and Cedar Road, just a couple of miles from its original site.

The barn’s first owner, William Tilsy, acquired his farm on 151st Street and Bell Road between 1860 and 1862, according to historical documentation, and it remained in his family until the 1980s.

Konow said Tilsy bought the barn as a kit in 1862 and had it shipped out of New England to Chicago. The family, which still lives in the area, has the original receipt – of which Konow hopes to obtain a copy – showing the $1,000 purchase price.

Coincidentally, that’s how much Konow paid the Will County Forest Preserve District to buy the barn last year.

From 1989 through 2000, the forest preserve district gradually acquired the 626 acres now known as Messenger Marsh, including the land on which Tilsy’s barn sat.

With its trails, pavilion and dog park there, the district had no use for the structure and wanted to demolish it. Will County Board member Kathleen Konicki (R-Homer Township) fought to preserve it, but when her efforts to raise funds for restoration failed, the forest preserve district put it up for sale in November 2009.

The barn was listed on craigslist, in Farmers Weekly Review and on the forest preserve district’s website. A “for sale” sign was posted in front of the building.

Konow was one of three bidders.

Lee Werner Excavating, of Peotone, offered to remove the barn, with no plans to rebuild it, and clean up the site, for which it would charge the district $29,400. Trillium Dell Timberworks, of Knoxville, bid $3,000 to remove and rebuild the barn in McHenry County, but it would not clear the property.

Konow’s $1,001 bid won approval in January 2010. Konicki cast the only “no” vote because she wanted it to remain on forest preserve land, according to meeting minutes.

“When I said I would save it and reconstruct it, that was the ticket,” Konow said of the winning bid. He also said he would keep the barn in Homer Glen, seek landmark status and make it available to the public.

Konicki now considers Konow a “white knight.”

“Without Konow, I don’t know where this would have gone,” she said. “I am absolutely delighted it will be landmarked.”

“We’re happy it is preserved,” district spokesman Bruce Hodgdon said. “We could not absorb the expense.”

Konow said the relocation and restoration project cost him $130,000.

“That’s down to the last cup of coffee for the guys (who helped),” he said.

But he went the extra mile to make sure the restoration was done safely and in as historically accurate a manner as possible.

“It cost more than I thought, but I had to do it right,” Konow said.

He hired Preservation Trades of Wayne, and spent last April working side by side with that crew, taking the barn apart board by board and scraping off six layers of roof shingles.

“They did keep a good roof on it, and that kept the inside intact,” Konow said.

Any other building would have collapsed under the weight of all those shingles, he said.

“This just speaks to the structural integrity of the barn,” he said.

The post and timber frame, held together with wooden pegs, has withstood the test of time despite signs of gnawing by workhorses.

After a month of dismantling the barn, the rebuilding process began in May.

“It was like an old-fashioned barn-raising,” Konow said, except that he used a 60-foot forklift instead of ropes and pulleys.

There was one snafu: Half the barn siding was missing, having been stolen by people over the years, Konow said. But instead of going to a lumber yard, he searched for 3,000 feet of original barn siding and found it two months later, obtaining it from an Amish farmer in LaCrosse, Wis.

The material was identical and from the same era, Konow said.

The roof was a bit of a challenge, too. Since many roof boards were rotted, he spaced them more than the original 1 inch apart and covered the roof in corrugated tin.

In October, painters were hired to give Tilsy Barn a fresh new coat of “umbra red,” matching the original barn color.

The same ladder to the hayloft still clings to the south wall of the barn, and its hayfork hangs from the roof rafters, along with Konow’s grandfather’s rope.

Today, Tilsy Barn is appropriately filled with 15 antique tractors that Konow and his cousin, Herman Konow, like to restore. There’s also an 1850s wagon, picked up at a garage sale and used, so far, only for decoration.

“I can’t wait to really start using it,” he said.

Konow’s farm is famous for its fall corn mazes, and the barn will only enhance the local attraction. Already, Konow has booked six parties in the barn and hopes to do more. Older folks have stopped by to thank him for taking on the project, he said. Bridal parties have come for photo sessions.

And on Homer Glen’s Earth Day celebration May 21, there will be a ceremony at Konow’s farm acknowledging the town’s newest landmark and dedicating it to his grandfather, Otto Konow, and his father, Otto Jr.

“They would be really happy that I moved it to our home farm,” he said. “I would absolutely do it again. It would be pretty darn easy. I know the ropes.”

Its proud new owner also made sure the barn sits on its new concrete foundation just as it did before, with his favorite window still facing south, overlooking his fields, with new homes to the west.

Konow knows that as development encroaches on Homer’s farmland, it is impossible to save every historic structure. But he is pleased to have at least saved his favorite barn.

“If I’m going to go through all this and spend all this money (to restore it), I don’t want it to be wrecked by a developer,” Konow said of his eagerness to have the barn landmarked.

“I will make sure that Homer Glen eventually gets the barn and the property,” he said. “It will be my gift to the village or the park district.”