Bruce Godkin
By Krista Hulshof, OBP Treasurer
Bruce Godkin, former regional Rep for Perth & Huron counties, passed away of October 16th, 2025. He was 62 years old.
We would like to recognize Bruce’s contribution of Ontario Barn Preservation and the industry of old barn reclamation. He and his wife Katrin created Nostalgic Wood near Walton, Ontario and they graciously hosted our 2023 Strategic Review Meeting there, which was the first time many of our board members met in person. (We will be completing another strategic review within the coming year.)
Nostalgic Wood and Bruce were dedicated to saving old barns, reusing the wood, and keeping barns in Ontario. I personally worked closely with Bruce and his primary goal was also to stop shipping barn frames to the states and adopt them here in Ontario! The amount of barns he had seen and knowledge he had is now lost.
While we were at Bruce’s facility, He shared an amazing story of the treasures he found in old barns. I was never able to publish the story as I did not know how to verify it, so here it is in its raw form. Take it as fact or myth (or verify it for me)!
One of the main product Nostalgic wood offered was reclaimed hardwood flooring. So their facility would take large beams and slice them down to flooring size. One barn they took down was in Perth County nearby highway 8 which takes you from Kitchener to Goderich, a main trading route for early settlers, part of the Huron Tract area. The barn was located on the Yanzee Farm and was estimated to have been built around 1850. The post/beam in question within the barn was estimated to be 100 years old based on the rings and estimated cut-off. Therefore this beam came from a tree that started growing in the early 1700’s and was cut around 1850. As Bruce was sawing the beam he discovered a strange scar/mark in the middle of the wood. It was an odd shape.
Bruce deduced that the mark was made by a steel axe due to the sharp clean cuts. Axes of this type had to be steel and if old these axes came from Europe. Axes used by indigenous were not as precise as what he saw in the wood. The marks also formed a bit of an X or V shape. With these two clues Bruce felt that the marks he found would have been “blaze” marks or trail markings made by early explorers in the 17th century (fact for verification) for fur trading routes. Perth County and Huron County were not settled until 1820s and not surveyed until 1829.
So that was one of many stories Bruce shared with me in his travels through many barns. We will miss him.
Bruce’s obituary can be found here. https://www.haskettfh.com/godkin-bruce-lavern-of-walton/
To all OBP blog readers: If you have not already done so, please support not-for-profit, volunteer-run, Ontario Barn Preservation by becoming a member! Also, if you are in the business of repairing, reconstructing, engineering, designing, etc. old barns, please consider advertising your amazing skills on our Barn Specia-List. If you own an old barn that you would like to offer to someone else, or you are hoping to obtain one for your own project, make use of our Barn Exchange page. If you own an old barn and would like to save it in the virtual world for future old barn lovers, historians and researchers, check out our Your Old Barn Study page. And please send us your own barn story, photos and/or art for submission as a OBP blog posting for the enjoyment and education of all barn lovers! info@ontariobarnpreservation.com
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