Highlights the history, heritage, and present-day plight of Western New York’s agriculturally and architecturally significant Wells barns.

Still Standing: The Barns of J.T. Wells & Sons airs Sunday, August 18 at 1 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Still Standing: The Barns of J.T. Wells & Sons creatively explores ways that remaining barns can regain their relevance through adaptive reuse while fostering community engagement in their preservation before these barns disappear from the landscape entirely due to development, decay, and obsolescence.

The film introduces viewers to six Wells Barns and their owners. Nathan Ruekberg, a fifth-generation farmer, and his wife, Hannah own one of the earliest Wells barns, built in 1892. The second barn, formerly known as the Avon Century Barn, is owned by Sandy Howlett and Melissa Stanton, a dynamic mother-daughter business team who have transformed their Wells barn into a wedding venue. The third barn, situated on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, has been adapted into a rock-climbing gym. The fourth barn is owned by Gillian Conde who transformed it into a one-of-a-kind home that she shares with Jean Dombroski and their menagerie of animals. The final story features two barns that were relocated by their passionate owners Jennifer and Jerry Hall.

Breaking away from post and beam construction, John Talcott Wells, Sr. defied barn-building tradition to create an ingenious truss system – patented trusses (1889) specifically designed to balance outward and inward forces while creating soaring, open interior storage spaces for hay and grain. Historically significant in terms of their agricultural origins and their architectural artistry, Wells barns stand as physical testaments to the ingenuity of the master and family that built them.

Committed to protecting, preserving, and promoting the history of Wheatland, New York, the Wheatland Historical Association under President Kip Finley served as Churchbell Creative, LLC.’s fiscal sponsor, supporting producers with their goal of securing grant funding for the production of their independent television documentary. 

Grant support for this project came from the Lloyd E. Klos Fund at Rochester Area Community Foundation to support historical preservation, education and information. This documentary is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Churchbell Creative’s co-owners Katie Andres and Jillian Kuchman, two founding members of a grassroots volunteer organization known as the Wells Barn Legacy Team, served as executive producers on the film.